- Professor Yash Pal attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his PhD
- He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2013
- In 2009, he received the Kalinga Prize, awarded by UNESCO for the popularisation of science
Globally renowned physicist, academic and higher education reformer Professor Yash Pal passed away in Noida on Tuesday. He was 90.
Yash Pal was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2013.
The highly-regarded academic began his career at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He was a member of the ‘cosmic rays group’. He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his PhD, after which he returned to the Tata Institute, where he remained until 1983.
Yash Pal was appointed by the government to several school and higher education reform committees. When the National Council of Educational Research and Training began work on the National Curriculum Framework, Yash Pal was roped in to chair its steering committee. In 2009, the human resources development ministry set up a committee on higher education – that came to be called the Yash Pal Committee – which Yash Pal chaired, to look into reforming higher education in the country.
