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Yash Pal, a Path-breaker
Those who knew the groundbreaking scientist and eminent educationalist, Yash Pal will sorely miss him. He was loved not only for the work and ideas he could generate, but for the ideas and creativity he induced in others around him.
Yash Pal (26 November 1926–24 July 2017) is a personification of the legends of independent India. A child of the partition, he defined the best of the aristocracy of early Indian intellectuals and scientists. With colleagues such as Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, and driven by the ideology of Jawaharlal Nehru, Yash Pal, in many ways defined India’s quest to pursue scientific research and education to the fullest. He worked hard to bring about scientific temper in people around him.
Born in Jhang in present-day Pakistan, he was a product of partition, who left behind its bitter legacy and decided to devote himself to the scientific way of life. After his graduation from Punjab University, he was handpicked by Homi Bhabha to join the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in its early days. As was the norm then, Homi Bhabha decided that Yash Pal would go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and work on his PhD with the legendary Bruno Rossi. He not only completed his PhD, but also acquired a whole host of skills that would serve him well in TIFR where he returned in 1958.
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