Foreword

I am delighted to see that Current Science is bringing out a special section on Dr Vikram Sarabhai on the eve of his birth centenary year. I find no better way to describe the personality of this great Indian than to reproduce what Prof. C. N. R. Rao says about him in his concluding paragraph as a part of his tribute in this issue: ‘Vikram Sarabhai was one of the most cultured persons that I have known. He was educated in the true sense. His wife Mrinalini was a great classical dancer and ran a dance academy. I consider myself lucky to have known a person as sophisticated, as suave, as human and as charming, as Vikram Sarabhai. I have not met anyone like Vikram Sarabhai in my dealings with the scientific community. There was only one Vikram Sarabhai.’