Light Tamer in a Turban - Narinder Singh Kapani
In the XNUMXs in Dehradun, an Indian city at the foot of the Himalayas, a science teacher explained to his students that light travels in a straight line. One of the spectators was Narinder Singh Kapani, whose theme captivated. In the future, he will create optical fibers, come up with a name for them and win more than a hundred patents in the field of optics.
Born in 1927 in Moga, a city in the state of Punjab. Kapani began his adventure with optics by experimenting with a Kodak Box camera.given by my father. He disassembled the device to find out how it works. He remembered the moment when he realized that the teacher was wrong, and that thanks to lenses and prisms, at least change the direction of the light.
Technical interests determined the choice of further education. He chose Agra University. Further research in this area advanced optics He continued his studies at Imperial College London. Successfully, as he soon received a fellowship from the Royal Society of Engineers.
Light transmission cable
Although he distinguished himself by his abilities and diligence, he did not plan a scientific career at that time. He was going to return to India and start his own business. In the end, the plans were implemented, and he was convinced of this by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. This politician he was an enthusiast of science and innovation, he wanted to develop the country, so he wanted to find a young talented scientist to work in India. The Kapans were even supposed to become scientific advisers to the Ministry of Defense.
Narinder even got to work on the first projects optical instruments for a munitions factory in India. However, this did not last long, as he soon returned to London to complete his Ph.D. It was hard to turn down such a chance. Kapans could now conduct research under the guidance of a professor Harold Hopkins, British physicist, twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. It was thanks to him that the Indian became interested in the use of optics in medicine. And prof. Hopkins liked the young scientist for his ability to see the results of their joint research in practice.
Narinder Singh Kapani years ago
It was then that the young Narinder was working at the Imperial College. direction of optical rays through glass fiberand in 1953, for the first time, the previously unattainable quality of image transmission over a large bundle of optical fibers was achieved. The success earned him a doctorate and paved the way for an international career. The breakthrough event was a meeting with American scientists during a scientific conference in 1954 in Italy. Trap there he gave his first lecture on optical fibers. They presented the results of their work with Prof. Haroldem Hopkins and both of them showed that twisted fiberglass transmits light.
Thus, years later, Kapan proved to his former teacher that he was wrong and that light wave it does not have to move only in a straight line, and a fiberglass beam, even a curved one, is an excellent waveguide for transmitting captured light. At the same time, researchers from Imperial College and Charles Tainterwhich was built in 1880 phototelephone - a device that allows you to transmit voice, converted into a beam of light and sending it to a distance of 213 meters to the receiver.
For academics listening to Capani's reading at a congress in Italy, the importance of the discoveries regarding the possibility of transmission through bundle of optical fibers it was obvious. Capani left Congress as a distinguished scholar, taking up a new position on the board of faculty at the American University of Rochester. At this elite university, there was a pioneer faculty of the Institute of Optics, created the first in the world, created in 1929 thanks to grants, incl. Kodak. In the same year, the journal "Nature" published Kapani's work on optical fibers.
Now Kapani was able to develop his passion and continue research related to the transmission of light through glass waveguides... In 1956 g. created the first optical fiberbut the official name he came up with was not yet an accepted term. In 1960, Capani wrote an article about his findings in the popular science magazine Scientific American. Only from that moment on, the name coined by the Indian scientist became popular, and in California.
There he lectured at the best universities in the world, at the University of California, Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Stanford University. By 1965, he had written or co-authored 56 scientific papers seeking funding for his research projects, which were still considered risky.
He founded his own Optics Technology company near Palo Alto and Stanford University where he worked. The place was special for other reasons as well. Thus was born the greatness of Silicon Valley. The Draper Fund, Gaither & Anderson, which financed Kapani's projects, was one of the first venture capital companies on the West Coast.
Founding of optical technology in 1960
The inventor, who later became an investor guru, helped take the first steps in business Silicon Valley, Thomas J. Perkins, as business director of a gifted Indian startup. The collaboration of both men was legendary, with stories of fights in the background. Perhaps there is some truth in them, because Perkins had to tell his employees that he wanted to carve a statement on his tombstone: "I still hate him." Eventually, Perkins left Optics Technology and Kapani successfully founded other fiber companies such as Kaptron Inc., K2 Optronics. He managed to list one of the companies he founded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Remembering Sikh Identity
The result of his research on fiber optic communication, lasers, biomedical equipment, solar energy i pollution monitoring there were over a hundred patents and cooperation with numerous scientific societies, incl. from the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Optical Society of America.
Despite his success in business, he remained a modest man and a generous philanthropist. He funded the creation in 1999 of the Department of Optoelectronics at UC Santa Cruz. One year before founded the Department of Sikh Studies at the University of Santa Barbara.. He came from a Sikh family. He wore turbans, tailored suits and ties, and spoke English with a thick American accent. Undoubtedly pioneer in fiber optic technology he was proud of his roots. Back in the 60s, together with his wife Satinder Kaur, they founded a foundation in California that promotes the culture and heritage of the Sikhs. He has amassed one of the largest collections of Sikh art in the world, part of the collection was donated in 2003 by the Museum of Asian Art in San Francisco, where the Satinder Kaur Kapani Gallery of Sikh Art was created, i.e. first permanent Sikh art gallery in the West. Although he lived in the US for a long time, he financially supported Sikh students from Punjab.
Dr. Narinder Singh Kapani has received a number of awards including Excellence Award 2000 from the American Pan-Asian American Chamber of Commerce in 1998, Pravasi Bharati Award from the Government of India in 2008, Honorary Doctorate from Guru Nanak Dev University, Fiat Lux Award from the University of California in 2008, Asia Game Changer West Award in 2019 and many more. In 1999, Fortune magazine named him one of the seven people who have influenced the daily lives of many people in the 2020th century. He died on December 94, XNUMX at the age of XNUMX.
