Former VCs, colleagues remember Prof Yashpal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 10

Former vice-chancellors of Panjab University, colleagues of professor Yashpal and Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune Group of Publications Dr Harish Khare met to pay homage to Prof Yashpal. He had passed away on July 24. 

An alumnus of the PU, Prof Yashpal had left a deep impact in the world of science and on many who had worked with him. They shared fond memories. He announced that a national symposium will soon be started in his memory. 

Speakers will talk about his work and the proceedings of these symposiums will be published. He also announced that a special issue of ‘Physics News’ will be published by a collaborative effort of the TIFR alumni association, PU alumni association and the Indian Physics Association. It will talk about his works and will be written by people who knew him.

Calling Yashpal’s death a national loss, Dr Harish Khare said Prof Yashpal stood for modern, secular and rational scientific outlook. “In the current scenario, we are being invited to hold back our thoughts. Our imagination is being constricted,” he said.

Former VC of PU, Prof RP Bambah termed Yashpal a philosopher of science. Remembering him as the first recipient of Vigyan Rattan from the PU, Prof Bambah credited him for taking science to the living rooms of the ordinary people. Remembering him from the pre-Independence days, Bambah fondly recalled his association with him in Delhi.  Another former vice-chancellor Prof MM Puri recalled that Prof Yashpal’s house was a meeting place for curious minds.