VIKRAM AMBALAL Sarabhai was born at Ahmedabad in an affluent family of progressive industrialists. He had his early education in a private school, `Retreat` run by his parents on Montessori lines. This atmosphere injected into the young boy the seeds of scientific curiosity, ingenuity and creativity.

From this school he proceeded to Cambridge for his college education and took the tripods degree from St. John`s college in 1940.

When World War II began, he returned home and joined as a research scholar under Sir C. V. Raman at the IISc, Bangalore. He started his work on cosmic rays and built the necessary equipment with which he took measurements at Bangalore, Poona and the Himalayas. He returned to Cambridge in 1945. In 1947 he was awarded the Ph.D degree