Narinder Singh
Kapany
Narinder Singh Kapany, one of the greatest Scientists of the last century, known as “Father of Fiber
Optics”, was born on 31.10.1926 at Moga in Punjab. After studying physics from Agra University, the
Sikh physicist, went for further studies at Imperial College, London. It was here that he obtained his Ph.D
Degree in 1955. He conducted his research that led to the invention of Optical Fiber. 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
Unites 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 Intrapreneur & Technical Expert programe and serving as Chief Technologist for Global
Communications Business. He also founded K2 Optronics.He has also served on the boards of various
companies.
He was a member of the Young Presidents Organisation and is presently a member of the
World presidents Organisation. As an academic, Kapany has 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 Standord University, he was a visiting
scholar in the Physics Department and Consulting Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering.
He has published over 100 Scientific papers and four books on Opto-Elctronics and Entrepreneurship. He
has lectured to various national and international scientific societies. His popular article on Fibre optics in
Scientific American in 1960 established the new term (Fibre Optics), the article constitutes a reference point
for the subject even today. 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.Apart from being a great Scientist for which he has received many honors and prizes such as Excellence
2000 Award from the U.S.A., PAN-Asian American Chamber of Commerce and fellowship of various
scientific societies including the American Association for the advancement of Science, he is also a Gursikh
actively engaged in the service of mankind. He has been the Founding Chairman of the Sikh Foundation
and has always been associated actively visits activities. In 1998, he funded to establish a chair of Sikh
studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Further in 1999, he donated 5,00,000 Pounds to the
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco to establish a gallery of Sikh works of Art, which also he donated from
his collection. His love for education and art is so intensed that he has a big collection of Sikh paintings.
He provided on loan these paintings for, “Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms” Exhibition held at London in 1999
and then at Asian Art Museum of San Francisco followed by the Exhibition at Royal Ontario Museum in
Toranto in May 2000. 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. As an artist, Kapany has created 40 “dynoptic” sculptures which were
first displayed in a one-man show at the Exploratorium of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco in 1972.
Since then, the collection has been viewed at museums and art galleries in Chicago, Monterey, Palo Alto
and Stanford. Thus, Dr. Kapany is a great Scientist, Research Scholar and a Philanthropist. The great Sikh
role model is presently living with his wife Satinder Kaur and family in the San Francisco Bay area. His son
Rajinder Sing is a high tech executive and his daughter Kiren, is an attorney and film maker.