Meet Indian genius, ignored by Nobel Prize committee for his work, served as govt officer, he is called 'Father of...'

India has seen several geniuses who contributed to the field of science. However, many such persons remain relatively unknown despite their inventions. One such person was Narinder Singh Kapany, an Indian-American physicist, a pioneer in fiber optics, known for coining and popularising the term. He is considered the father of Fiber Optics. Even Fortune magazine named him one of seven 'Unsung Heroes of the 20th Century' for his Nobel Prize-deserving invention. Kapany had over 120 patents in his name and was a member of the National Inventors Council.

Born in Punjab in 1926, it was due to his path-breaking invention of fiber optics that we have high-speed communication and medical procedures such as endoscopy and laser surgeries. However, in 2009, people were surprised by the omission of Dr Kapany's name for Nobel Prize in Physics for the transmission of light through fibreglass. The Nobel committee noted that scientist Charles K Kao had made a discovery in 1966 that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics.

Kapany served as an Indian Ordnance Factories Service (IOFS) officer. The man was also offered the post of Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister of India, by then PM Jawaharlal Nehru. He completed his schooling in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. He graduated from Agra University. He then went to Imperial College London in 1952 to work on a PhD degree in optics from the University of London. Kapany coined the term 'fiber optics' in an article in Scientific American in 1960.

He passed away on December 4, 2020, at the age of 94. The man was also awarded Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, posthumously in 2021.

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