Pushpa Mittra Bhargava (1928 – 2017) was an Indian scientist, writer, and administrator. In 1977, he founded the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), a federally funded research institute carved out of Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), in Hyderabad.
Homeschooled until Class IX, he earned his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Lucknow University in 1949, at the age of 21.
In 1950, PMB moved to Hyderabad and began working as a lecturer at Mahabub College. Later joined the Chemistry Department at Osmania University and the Central Laboratories for Scientific and Industrial Research. He made a switch to biology in 1959 after a stint abroad.
Under his leadership, CCMB was established as a semi-autonomous institution, later becoming a full-fledged national laboratory. At CCMB, he recruited talent such as Lalji Singh, who worked on sex determination in organisms, including temperature-dependent determination in crocodiles.
He set up the Guha Research Conference, which grew out of dissatisfaction with the Indian Science Congress and became a leading forum for molecular biologists. His book The Angels, Devil and Science deals with the subject of scientific temper in India.
He played an important role in having scientific temper incorporated as a fundamental duty of the citizens of India, in the 42nd constitutional amendment in 1976.
He was one of the key architects of the widely known 'Statement on Scientific temper', issued jointly by a group of liberal, committed and rational high-achievers of the country.
Bhargava received Padma Bhushan from the President of India in 1986, but returned it in 2015 as an act of protest against the Indian government's active erosion of spaces for dissent within the country.