“Creativity is the key to success in the future, and primary education is where teachers can bring creativity in children at that level”
-Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
We all know how important a part teachers play in everyone’s life. They not only influence people in the early stage of their lives but also help in shaping their future and gaining knowledge.
Teacher’s day is celebrated on September 5, throughout India since 1962. Let’s take a look on how this day became a day of celebration.
This day is celebrated to honor Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was a teacher, a great philosopher and statesman. He was awarded with Bharat Ratna in 1954. He also served as 1st vice president and 2nd president of India. When he became President of India, some of his friends and students requested him to allow them to celebrate his birthday as Radhakrishnan Jayanti but he wanted a day to be dedicated to the teachers of the country so he replied “Instead of celebrating my birthday, it would be my proud privilege if September 5th is observed as Teachers’ Day.” Since then India is celebrating Teacher’s Day.
India is blessed to witness some of the great inspiring teachers who have created history with their talent, skills and intellect. One of them being Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who is still loved by all of us. He was dedicated most of his life to his passion which was teaching. He wrote Ignited Minds, which is based on a child’s life, Wings of Fire, India 2020 and many more. He has copyright over all of them.
Interestingly, there are some teachers who amazed the world through their inventions and helped people discover new world. Here are some details:
| Name | Academic | Invention | Award |
| Arun Majumdar | Professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. | US 13/418,021 – Relativistic concept measuring system for data clustering
US 13/553,662 – Cognitive memory encoding networks for fast semantic indexing storage and retrieval |
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013)
Appointed Science Envoys of the US on December 05, 2014 |
| Ashok Gadgil | Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley | 5,780,860 – UV Water Disinfector.
5,277,653 – Gas Flow Means for Improving Efficiency of Exhaust Hoods 6,464,884 – Portable Water Treatment Unit 6,602,425 – Method for Low Cost Water Disinfection |
European Inventor Award with Vikas Garud awarded by the European Patent Office |
| Atul Kumar | Professor/Sr. Principal Scientist at Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research(AcSIR) Central Drug Research institute (CSIR-CDRI) at Lucknow | US Patent no.7582653 – Mercaptophenyl naphthyl methane compounds and synthesis thereof prevention /treatment of osteoporosis and other estrogen dependent disorders | Vigyan Ratna Samman, UPCST 2012 |
| Dr. Chandrasekaran Mohan | Visiting Professor at China’s Tsinghua University | US2015213073 (A1) – Using parallel insert sub-ranges to insert into a column store
US5455942 (A) – Partial page write detection for a shared cache using a bit pattern written at the beginning and end of each page |
US National Academy of Engineering 2009
ACM SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award 1996 IBM Fellow 1997 IEEE Fellow 2002 ACM Fellow 2002 Indian National Academy of Engineering 2009 Distinguished Visiting Professor, Tsinghua University 2016 |
| Homi J. Bhabha | Professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. | Electron-positron scattering (Bhabha scattering) | Adams Prize (1942)
Padma Bhushan (1954) Fellow of the Royal Society |
| Jagadish Chandra Bose | Professor of Physics, Presidency College of University of Calcutta | Crescograph | Awards Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) (1903),
Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) (1911), Knight Bachelor (1917) |
| Meghnad Saha | Professor at Allahabad University from 1923 to 1938, professor and Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Calcutta. | An instrument to measure the weight and pressure of solar rays | Fellow of the Royal Society |
| Patcha Ramachandra Rao | Vice-Chancellor (2002–05) of the Banaras Hindu University | 374/Del/94 – A process for the production of nano-sized neodymium-iron –boron permanent magnet alloy powder.
1809/Del/96 – An improved process for production of aluminium dry cell. Patent US 7338589 – A process for the recovery of gallium from Bayer process liquors. |
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, CSIR (1985) National Metallurgist Award (2004) Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Gold Medal, INSA (2005) |