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Updated 04 Dec 2020
NRI Narinder Singh Kapany, Father of fibre optics dies at 94
He was owner of 100 patents under fibre optic communications, lasers, bio-medical instrumentation, solar energy and pollution monitoring.
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NRI Dr.
Kapany widely acknowledged as the father of fiber-optics
Narinder Kapany, Ph.D.
Founder and Chairman
K2 Optronics, Inc.
"In high school, a teacher told Kapany that light could travel
only in a straight line. Kapany set out to prove him wrong and wound
up creating fiber optics." (Fortune Magazine, 1999)
Born in Moga, Punjab, India and educated in England, Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany
has lived in the United States for forty-five years. A graduate
of Agra University in India, he completed advanced studies in optics
at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, and received
his Ph.D. from the University of London in 1955.
His career has spanned science, entrepreneurship and management,
academia, publishing, lecturing, and farming. His personal interests
include philanthropy, art collecting, and sculpting.
As a scientist, Dr. Kapany is widely acknowledged as the father
of fiber-optics. His research and inventions have encompassed fiber-optics
communications, lasers, biomedical instrumentation, solar energy
and pollution monitoring. He has over one hundred patents, and was
a member of the National Inventors Council. He has received many
awards including 'The Excellence 2000 Award' from the USA Pan-Asian
American Chamber of Commerce in 1998. He is a Fellow of numerous
scientific societies including the British Royal Academy of Engineering,
the Optical Society of America, and the American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
As an entrepreneur and business executive, Dr. Kapany has specialized
in the processes of innovation and the management of technology
and technology transfer. 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 United States and
abroad. In 1973, Dr. Kapany founded Kaptron Inc. and was President
and CEO until 1990 when he sold the company to AMP Incorporated.
For the next nine years, Dr. Kapany was an AMP Fellow, heading the
Intrapreneur & Technical Expert Program and serving as Chief
Technologist for Global Communications Business. He recently founded
K2 Optronics. He has also served on the boards of various companies.
He was a member of the Young Presidents Organization and is presently
a member of the World Presidents Organization.
As an academic, Dr. 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 Stanford University, he has been a Visiting Scholar
in the Physics Department and Consulting Professor in the Department
of Electrical Engineering.
As an author and lecturer, Dr. Kapany has published over 100 scientific
papers and four books on opto-electronics and entrepreneurship.
He has lectured to various national and international scientific
societies.
As a philanthropist, Dr. Kapany has been active in education and
the arts. He has been the founding chairman and major funder of
the Sikh Foundation and its activities for over 30 years. In collaboration
with international institutions and publishers, the Foundation runs
programs in publishing, academia and the arts. In 1998, Dr. Kapany
endowed a Chair of Sikh Studies at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. His gift in 1999 of $500,000 to the Asian Art Museum
of San Francisco will establish a gallery in its new building displaying
the works he has donated from his collection of Sikh art. In 1999,
he endowed a Chair of Opto-Electronics at the University of California,
Santa Cruz. He is also trustee of the University of California,
Santa Cruz Foundation. He has served as a trustee of the Menlo School
in Menlo Park, California.
As an art collector, Dr. Kapany has specialized in Sikh art. He
was the prime mover and a provided a major loan of paintings for
the internationally acclaimed 'Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms' exhibition.
The exhibition started in March 1999 at the Victoria & Albert
Museum, London, proceeded to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
with the Sikh Foundation as its major sponsor, and opened in May
2000 for four months at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. The
exhibition follows 'Splendors of the Punjab: Sikh Art and Literature
in 1992' organized by Dr. Kapany in collaboration with the Asian
Art Museum and UC Berkeley to celebrate the 25th anniversary of
the Sikh Foundation.
As an artist, Dr. 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.
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