Moga to London
Narinder Singh Kapany was born on 31 October 1926 in Moga, Punjab. After studying at Agra University he went to Imperial College London for optics research.
Moving from India to the UK, and later to the USA, took him to the centre of an emerging field.
Pictures through glass
At Imperial College, with Harold Hopkins, he did pioneering experiments on transmitting images through flexible bundles of glass fibres. Light that enters a thin glass fibre keeps reflecting inside it, so it can follow the fibre around a bend.
In the 1950s he popularised the term “fibre optics” and played a leading role in the early conceptual and experimental development of optical-fibre imaging and communication science. Coherent fibre bundles and optical image transmission are his major contributions.
Research into business, and beyond
He later built an academic and entrepreneurial career in the USA, set up optical-technology companies, and was active in Sikh art and philanthropy. Turning research into enterprise was the second major transition of his life.
He died in 2020, and in 2021 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan posthumously. New fields are often built by many contributors, and history’s credit should be nuanced.
Sources
- UC Santa Cruz: Narinder Kapany in memoriam
- Optica (The Optical Society)
- Padma Awards
- news.ucsc.edu/2020/12/narinder-kapany-in-memoriam/
- optica.org/
- padmaawards.gov.in/