Narinder Singh Kapany

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"Narinder Singh" redirects here. For the Indian cricketer, see Narinder Singh (cricketer).
Narinder Singh Kapany
File:Narinder Singh Kapany.jpg
Born 31 October 1926
Moga, Punjab Province, British India
Died 4 December 2020 (2020-12-05) (aged 94)
California, U.S.
Nationality Indian, American
Fields Physics
Institutions Agra University
Ordnance Factories Board
Imperial College of Science
British Royal Academy of Engineering[1]
Optical Society of America
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)
Stanford University
Alma mater Agra University
Imperial College London
Known for Pioneering work on fiber optics
Notable awards Pravasi Bharatiya Samman
The Excellence 2000 Award
FREng[1] (1998)

Narinder Singh Kapany (31 October 1926 – 4 December 2020) was an Indian-born American physicist best known for his work on fibre optics.[2][3][4] He is credited with the coinage of the term fiber optics and is also considered as the 'father of fiber optics'.[5][6] Fortune named him one of seven 'Unsung Heroes' in their 'Businessmen of the Century' issue in 1999.[3][7][4]

Early life and research

Kapany was born on 31 October 1926, in a Sikh family in Moga, Punjab.[8][9] He completed his schooling in Dehradun and went on to graduate from the Agra University.[8] He served briefly as an Indian Ordnance Factories Service officer, before going to Imperial College London in 1952 to work on a Ph.D. degree in optics from the University of London, which he obtained in 1955.[8][10]

At Imperial College, Kapany worked with Harold Hopkins on transmission through fibers, achieving good image transmission through a large bundle of optical fibers for the first time in 1953.[11][12][13] Optical fibers had been tried for image transmission before, but Hopkins and Kapany's technique allowed much better image quality than could previously be achieved. This, combined with the almost-simultaneous development of optical cladding by Dutch scientist Bram van Heel, helped jump start the new field of fiber optics. Kapany coined the term 'fiber optics' in an article in Scientific American in 1960, wrote the first book about the new field, and was the new field's most prominent researcher, writer, and spokesperson.[11][14][15]

Kapany's research and work encompassed fibre-optics communications, lasers, biomedical instrumentation, solar energy and pollution monitoring. He had over one hundred patents, and was a member of the National Inventors Council. He was an International Fellow[1] of numerous scientific societies including the Royal Academy of Engineering,[1] the Optical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[10]

Career

Optical fibres

As an entrepreneur and business executive, Kapany specialized in the processes of innovation and the management of technology and technology transfer. In 1960, he founded Optics Technology Inc. and was chairman of the board, President, and Director of Research for twelve years. In 1967 the company went public with numerous corporate acquisitions and joint-ventures in the United States and abroad. In 1973, Kapany founded Kaptron Inc. and was President and CEO until 1990 when he sold the company to AMP Incorporated. For the next nine years, Kapany was an AMP Fellow, heading the Entrepreneur & Technical Expert Program and serving as Chief Technologist for Global Communications Business. He founded K2 Optronics. He also served on the boards of various companies. He was a member of the Young Presidents Organization and later was a member of the World presidents Organization.[16][10]

As an academic, Kapany taught and supervised research activity of postgraduate students. He was a Regents Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), and at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). He was also Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development (CIED) at UCSC for seven years. At Stanford University, he was a Visiting Scholar in the Physics Department and Consulting Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering.[17]

As an author and lecturer, Kapany published over 100 scientific papers and four books on opto-electronics and entrepreneurship. He lectured to various national and international scientific societies. His article on Fibre optics in Scientific American in 1960 established the term "fibre optics". In November 1999, Fortune magazine published profiles of seven people who have greatly influenced life in the twentieth century but are unsung heroes. Kapany was one of them.[4]

Philanthropy and art

File:19th century Janam Sakhi, Guru Nanak meets Natha Siddhas, Kapany collection.jpg
19th century Sikh manuscripts from the Kapany collection at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

As a philanthropist, Kapany was active in education and the arts. He was the founding chairman of the Sikh Foundation and was a major funder of its activities for over 50 years.[18] In collaboration with international institutions and publishers, the Foundation runs programs in publishing, academia and the arts.[19] In 1998, Kapany endowed a Chair of Sikh Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His gift in 1999 of $500,000 to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco will establish a gallery in its new building displaying the works he donated from his collection of Sikh art.[20][21][22] In 1999, he endowed a Chair of Opto-Electronics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was also trustee of the University of California, Santa Cruz Foundation.[23] He served as a trustee of the Menlo School in Menlo Park, California.[16]

As an art collector, Kapany specialised in Sikh art. He provided paintings and other objects on loan for the "Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms" exhibition, which was held at London's Victoria & Albert Museum beginning in March 1999.[24] From there, the exhibition proceeded to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (with the Sikh Foundation as a sponsor) and opened in May 2000 at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The exhibition follows "Splendors of the Punjab: Sikh Art and Literature in 1992" organised by Kapany in collaboration with the Asian Art Museum and UC Berkeley to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Sikh Foundation.[25] As an artist, Kapany his dynoptic sculptures were displayed at the Exploratorium of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco in 1972 and at museums and art galleries in Chicago, Monterey, Palo Alto, and Stanford.[26][27]

Awards and recognition

He received many awards including the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, by the Government of India in 2004, "The Excellence 2000 Award" from the USA Pan-Asian American Chamber of Commerce in 1998. In 1999, he was identified by Fortune as an "unsung hero" in the "Businessmen of the Century" issue.[28][29] He received the UC Santa Cruz Foundation Fiat Lux Award in 2008.[30][31]

Personal life

Kapany married his wife Satinder Kaur in 1954, in London, United Kingdom.[32] He died on 4 December 2020. He was aged 94.[16]

References

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External links

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 rediff.com: Honouring the Achievers Archived 3 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Specials.rediff.com. Retrieved on 6 April 2011.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 How India missed another Nobel Prize – Rediff.com India News Archived 14 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine. News.rediff.com (12 October 2009). Retrieved on 6 April 2011.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ The Tribune, Chandigarh, India – Business Archived 15 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Tribuneindia.com. Retrieved on 6 April 2011.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Two Revolutionary Optical Technologies. Scientific Background on the Nobel Prize in Physics 2009. Nobelprize.org. 6 October 2009
  14. ↑ How India missed another Nobel Prize – Rediff.com India News Archived 14 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine. News.rediff.com (12 October 2009). Retrieved on 8 February 2017.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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