Mambillikalathil Govind Kumar Menon — known to friends and colleagues as Goku or M.G.K. Menon — was born on 28 August 1928 in Mangalore into a distinguished Malayali family. His father, Justice Sankara Menon, and mother, Narayanikutty Amma, gave him a strong foundation of learning and public service.

He took his BSc from Jaswant College, Jodhpur, in 1946 and his MSc from the Royal Institute of Science, Bombay, in 1949. Inspired by the example of C.V. Raman, he went to the University of Bristol, where he earned his PhD in 1953 under the Nobel laureate Cecil F. Powell. Working with nuclear emulsions carried aloft by balloons, he helped unravel the properties of strange particles, especially the decay modes of K-mesons.

In 1955 Homi Bhabha invited him to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. There Menon built one of the world’s leading groups in cosmic-ray physics. He pioneered high-altitude balloon experiments and, with international collaborators, conducted deep-underground studies at the Kolar Gold Fields. In 1965 the team recorded the first atmospheric neutrinos — a landmark in particle physics.

When Bhabha died in 1966, Menon, only thirty-seven, became Director of TIFR and held the post until 1975. He went on to serve as Chairman of ISRO in 1972, Director-General of DRDO (1974–78), Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, Director-General of CSIR, Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister, and Minister of State for Science and Technology. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1970 and President of all three Indian science academies.

Colleagues remembered a man of boundless energy and quiet clarity. One younger scientist later recalled him saying, after a long night of analysing emulsion plates:

“The universe sends us messages in every particle. Our task is simply to listen carefully and then build the institutions that will let the next generation hear them better.”

He received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 1960, the Padma Shri in 1961, the Padma Bhushan in 1968, and the Padma Vibhushan in 1985. An asteroid, 7564 Gokumenon, bears his name. He died in New Delhi on 22 November 2016.

In the story of Indian science and medicine, M.G.K. Menon stands as both discoverer and builder — the physicist who linked the secrets of cosmic rays to the creation of a modern scientific India.