My Journey from Cosmic Rays to Elementary Particles

Abstract

I was fascinated by the study of cosmic rays after reading a B.Sc. level text book:"Modern Physics" by J.B. Rajam, which included the image of Piara Singh Gill (PS Gill). The footnote mentioned that PS Gill is the discoverer of latitude effect of cosmic rays. I was motivated to join Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh for my Masters degree in Physics by Gurbax Singh Narang, our Physics teacher in Government Mahendra College, Patiala, who had once tried to register for Ph.D. in AMU under PS Gill. In July 1961, I was admitted to M.Sc. first year in Physics at AMU Aligarh. Just after my admission, PS Gill left for a trip to USA to carry on his research investigations on cosmic rays there. On his return after a year, he started teaching our class the special paper "High Energy Nuclear Physics", better known as elementary particles.