The important thing is to be a man of the world! Help others develop.
“When you look at the span of human life, individuals peak particular areas, with interest in different fields. If you are capable of doing a number of things, why restrict yourself?”
So says the man behind our life-lines! Who, do you ask?
We are proud to feature Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany in our coffee-table book, Jewels of Punjab (2017). He is a Sikh in San Francisco, who invented fiber optics, which blesses us with high-speed internet and several biomedical, laser, solar energy and pollution-monitoring instruments.
And it all started with a Kodak camera, the kinds that we today call a rather unsmart unDSLR camera. His new toy, a camera, made him think and explore and it led him to wonder if “light travels straight.” With curiosity ruling his mind, he successfully completed his Ph.D. from University of London, though his curiosity was unbound. The physicist today owns K2 Optronics Inc. in the field of fiber optics communication.
Successful he sure is, but before anything else, he believes in being a Sikh which leads him to be a human first. Though his patents, books, and K2 Optronics keep him busy to no end, yet he makes sure to find time for The Sikh Foundation, which he founded to promote education, art and culture. He has also endowed a Chair of Sikh Studies at University of California; he also has donated his time and efforts to Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Wasn’t it obvious that he won Pravasi Bhartiya Samman 2005!
