Narinder Singh Kapany

Narinder Singh Kapany was an Indian-American physicist and inventor who is widely regarded as the father of fiber optics. He was born on October 31, 1926 in Moga, Punjab, in present-day India. He completed his schooling in Dehradun and graduated from Agra University in India. He then moved to London where he earned his Ph.D. in optics from the Imperial College of Science in 1955. Kapany was the first to demonstrate the transmission of high-quality images through a bundle of optical fibers in 1953. He coined the term 'fiber optics' in an article in Scientific American in 1960 and wrote the first book on the subject in 1967. He also made significant contributions to other fields of physics such as lasers, biomedical instrumentation, solar energy, and pollution monitoring. He held over 120 patents and was a member of the National Inventors Council. Kapany founded several companies in Silicon Valley that developed and commercialized various optical technologies. He also served as a professor and researcher at several universities including the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Santa Cruz; and Stanford University. He was a fellow of numerous scientific societies such as the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Optical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Kapany was also a philanthropist and a promoter of Sikh culture and heritage. He established the Sikh Foundation in 1967 and donated his collection of Sikh art to various museums around the world. He also played a key role in formulating the National Calendar of India based on the Saka era which was adopted by the Government of India in 1957. Kapany received many awards and honors for his achievements in science and innovation. He was named one of the seven 'Unsung Heroes' of the 20th century by Fortune magazine in 1999. He was also awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the Government of India in 2004 and the Excellence 2000 Award by the USA Pan-Asian American Chamber of Commerce in 1998. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics multiple times. Kapany died on December 3, 2020 at the age of 94 in California, U.S. He is survived by his two sons Rajan and Kiran Kapany. He is widely remembered as a visionary leader, a pioneer inventor, and a great patriot who dedicated his life to the service of science and humanity.