Narinder Singh Kapany (31 October 1926 – 4 December 2020) was an Indian-American physicist famously known as "Father of Fiber Optics" .

[12] Kapany was born on 31 October 1926, in Moga, Punjab to Sundar Singh and Kundan Kaur.

[17][20][21] Kapany's research and work encompassed fiber-optics communications, lasers, biomedical instrumentation, solar energy and pollution monitoring.

In 1960, he founded Optics Technology Inc. and was chairman of the board, president, and director of research for twelve years.

In 1973, Kapany founded Kaptron Inc. and was president and CEO until 1990 when he sold the company to AMP Incorporated.

For the next nine years, Kapany was an AMP Fellow, heading the Entrepreneur & Technical Expert Program and serving as chief technologist for global communications business.

He founded the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development (CIED) at UCSC[22] and served as director for seven years.

[21] As an author and lecturer, Kapany published over 100 scientific papers and four books on opto-electronics and entrepreneurship.

[25] In 1998, Kapany endowed a Chair of Sikh Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Again in 2012, he established the Narinder Kapany Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship at UC Santa Cruz.

He provided paintings and other objects on loan for the "Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms" exhibition, which was held at London's Victoria & Albert Museum beginning in March 1999.