Nationality Indian Fields Nuclear physics | Role Physicist Name Piara Gill | |
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Institutions Tata Institute of Fundamental ResearchAtomic Energy Commission of IndiaAligarh Muslim UniversityPunjab Agricultural UniversityUniversity of ChicagoFirst Director of Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO) Alma mater University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Chicago Known for Advanced nuclear cosmic ray research. Scientists who worked on the Manhattan project & First director of CSIO. Died March 23, 2002, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Books Up Against Odds: Autobiography of an Indian Scientist | ||
Piara Singh Gill (28 October 1911 – 23 March 2002) was an Indian nuclear physicist who was a pioneer in cosmic ray nuclear physics and worked on the American Manhattan project. He was the first Director of Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) of India. He was research fellow of University of Chicago (1940). He was research Professorship fellow of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) (1947), Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) with the Atomic Energy Commission in New Delhi. Professor and head of the Department of Physics at Aligarh University (1949), Director of Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO) (1959) and Professor Emeritus Punjab Agricultural University (1971).
Contents
- Personal life
- Positions held
- Honorary professor of physics
- Membership of learned societies
- Positions held in the societies
- Membership of learned bodies
- References
Personal life
He was born on 28 October 1911 in a Sikh Gill Jat family in a village in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. He attended Khalsa High School in Mahilpur (1928) and left for America in 1929. He attended and graduated with a bachelor's and master's degrees from University of Southern California. He worked for his PhD in Physics at University of Chicago under the supervision and guidance of Arthur Compton, the Nobel Prize winning scientist. He received his PhD in March 1940. He was a good friend and close colleague of Homi J. Bhabha, who offered him the research fellow professorship at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1947.
He was a close friend of Nehru, who was impressed with his scientific breakthroughs. Nehru offered him the post of Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) with the Atomic Energy Commission in New Delhi; he asked him to become the first Director of Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO) of India.
He as its Director established (CSIO) as a leader in advanced scientific instrument design in Asia. Gill was a key advisor and planner to Nehru on India's nuclear weapons strategy in the 1950s-1960s.
Robert Oppenheimer was a close colleague and friend who he worked with on the Manhattan project. Oppenheimer asked Gill to present a paper at the California Institute of Technology at a conference arranged to celebrate the 80th birthday of Professor Robert Millikan, winner of the 1928 Physics Nobel Prize.
Some free excerpts from Professor Piara Singh Gill's autobiography can be read at Google Books.