Well Known Gujarati Technocrate

Shree Chandra Kumar Naranbhai Patel Natively Guajarati born on 2 July 1938 at Baramati, India.

He received a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree from the College of Engineering Pune (COEP), the University of Pune, India and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1959 and 1961, respectively.

Patel joined Bell Laboratories in 1961, and subsequently became Executive Director of the Research, Materials Science, Engineering and Academic Affairs Division at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he developed the carbon dioxide laser.

He developed the carbon dioxide laser in 1963 it is now widely used in industry for cutting and welding, as a laser scalpel in surgery, and in laser skin resurfacing. Because the atmosphere is quite transparent to infrared light, CO2 lasers are also used for military range finding using LIDAR techniques.

From 1993-1999, Patel served as Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is also Professor of Physics and Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Patel the National Medal of Science, "for his fundamental contributions to quantum electronics and invention of the carbon dioxide laser, which have had significant impact on industrial, scientific, medical, and defense applications." In addition to the carbon dioxide laser, he also developed the "spin-flip" infrared Raman laser.

Patel currently holds 36 U.S. patents relating to lasers and laser applications. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Science, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the American Physical Society, the IEEE, the Optical Society of America, the Laser Institute of America, and the American Society of Laser Medicine.