PU remembers its longest serving VC

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 31

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Former Vice-Chancellor RC Paul’s birth centenary celebrations took off at Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, on Wednesday.

“If I get a birth again, I would like to be his student,” said Professor Emeritus KK Bhasin, who was the 80th and the last PhD student of Professor Paul.

“He used to address his students and younger colleagues as kaka. His scolding was affectionate. He was 6 feet tall. He was 57 and I was 28. There used to be a fear of lion when he used to pass by our Chemistry Department corridor.”

Professor Paul was the longest serving Vice-Chancellor of the PU (1974-84). He did his PhD from Cambridge University.

Professor Emeritus Gurdev Singh, 88, who was Paul’s fourth PhD student, said, “We used to go to his residence. During the walk, his wife used to slow down as she knew that we would now start talking about research.”

He had joined the Hoshiarpur campus of the PU in 1950 and later served at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry.

Dr Ashok Kumar Sharma, 82, former NCERT Director, was his sixth PhD student. “I rarely saw him angry. He treated his students affectionately. No one had any inhibition while talking talking to him about personal or research problems,” said Dr Sharma.

He added, “Once there was a chlorine gas leak at the Chemistry Department, which is poisonous. Fire tenders had to be called. Professor Paul was out for some work. But when I told him about the person responsible for it, he did not lose his cool and worked on reducing the impact of the gas.”

Vice-Chancellor Raj Kumar urged the youth to learn from Professor Paul’s contributions. He added that scientists or researchers should not restrict themselves to labs only but interact with students. Three former vice-chancellors—Prof RP Bambah, Prof KN Patak and Prof R C Sobti—were present on the occasion. Professor Paul’s son Dr KK Paul, a former Governor of Uttrakhand, and daughter Dr Madhu Kaul were also present.