Professor P K Kaw, a globally acclaimed plasma physicist and founder director of the IPR, the nodal agency that has been coordinating with other countries in building the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France by 2019 recently died in Ahmedabad.

He was honoured with a Padma Shri in 1985 and headed India’s efforts to produce energy through thermonuclear fusion.

As per the statement given by D. Chenna Reddy, Dean (R&D) of Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar which was founded by Kaw in one of the daily newspapers, “He was suffering from cardiac disease. He underwent a bypass surgery a few years ago. But he was coming to work and attending all crucial meetings despite his deteriorating health. It is a huge and irreparable loss to the nation, and IPR in particular.”

He was also behind the construction of the country’s first indigenously-designed machine for controlling thermonuclear fusion, Aditya tokamak.

He began his career as a post-doctoral fellow in Princeton University, USA, after finishing his PhD from IIT-Delhi. From 1971-75 he was in India as associate professor and professor at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.