Piara Singh Gill

Born: 28 October 1911

Died: 23 March 2002

He 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 the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) of India.
He was a research fellow at the University of Chicago (1940).
He researched 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 at Punjab Agricultural University (1971).
He was a close friend of Nehru, who was impressed by his scientific knowledge.
Nehru offered him the post of Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) with the Atomic Energy Commission in New Delhi and asked him to become the first Director of Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO) of India.
As its Director he established CSIO as a leader in advanced scientific instrument design in Asia.
He was a key advisor to Nehru on India’s nuclear weapons strategy in the 1950-60s.
Robert Oppenheimer was a close colleague and friend.
Oppenheimer asked him 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.