India has seen several geniuses who became popular for their discoveries and work. However, many such people achieved much in life but still couldn't get credit for their work. One such person was Narinder Singh Kapany, an Indian-American physicist who was best known for his work on fiber optics. It was due to his path-breaking invention of fiber optics that the world today enjoys high-speed communication and medical procedures such as endoscopy and laser surgeries.
But 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 the award-winning scientist, Charles K Kao, had made a discovery in 1966 that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics.
Born in Punjab in 1926, Kapany is a pioneer in the field of fiber optics and is known for coining and popularising the term -- fiber optics. He passed away on December 4, 2020 at the age of 94. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour in 2021.
He completed his schooling in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. He graduated from Agra University. Not only this, the Indian genius served as an Indian Ordnance Factories Service officer. 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 was the unheralded 'Father of Fiber Optics'. He was also offered the post of Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister of India, by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru.
READ | Meet India's second most charitable billionaire, who led Rs 249000 crore company, he's not Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata
