Everyday we witness the splendour of light and colour around us. We see them in flowers, insects, mountains and morning and evening skies. And yet, light is one of the most enigmatic phenomena of the universe.

More than 50 years ago, an Indian scientist tweaked light for the first time to transmit data. Dehra Dun-educated Narinder Singh Kapani was the first famous Indian in Silicon Valley, much before it was given that name. Born in Moga in Punjab, Kapani went to Imperial College in London to study optics after graduating from Punjab University. In fact, he was the first researcher in the world to earn a doctorate in fibre optics, a field that is often said to have been pioneered by him. He is known as the man “who bent light”. “When my high school teacher told the class that light travels in a straight line, I had my doubts,” recalls Kapani who lives in the US and has more than 150 patents to his name.

The advent of fibre optics and its application in medical diagnostics as well as modern communication technologies led to the emergence of a new field called photonics, which is concerned with the generation, manipulation and detection of photons or particles of light. Sounds interesting? Then head to Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) in Kerala. Cusat, which has arguably one of the finest photonics laboratories in the country, offers a five-year integrated MSc in photonics. The university launched this course in 2002 and the first batch of 20 students passed out in 2007.

The course, according to V.P.N. Nampoori, director of the International School of Photonics at Cusat, has “a lot of physics, but very little of mathematics, chemistry or statistics — just enough for students to understand the science of photonics”.

The emphasis is on practicals. Students are encouraged to spend a lot of time in the laboratory, learning by themselves. “From the third semester, each student is attached to a faculty member who helps him or her with the lab work,” Nampoori says. The tenth semester is devoted completely to project work. Students are sent to various national laboratories such as the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, or the National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi for project work. Some even go abroad. “One student from the first batch interned in Poland and one from this year’s batch did his project in South Korea,” says Nampoori.

“All over the world, there is now a surge in photonics-based studies. But there is an acute shortage of human resource,” Nampoori says. Although all the students from the first batch received offers from top-notch companies in India, none of them accepted, preferring to go for further studies, relates their director. “Today, about 18 of them are pursuing doctoral programmes in leading universities in the US, Europe and Japan,” says a proud Nampoori. The second batch of students, who passed out recently, have also chosen research over jobs.

Says Aneesh Alex, a 2007 batch student now busy with research at Cardiff University in the UK, “I am happy I opted for this interesting course.” He admits that he would have sought to become a medical graduate but for the push he got from his mother. At Cardiff, he is trying to develop an ultra-high resolution imaging system for diagnosing cancers using optical coherence tomography.

Deepak Vijayakumar, another member of the first batch, says that if one wants to become an optical scientist, the Cusat course would be the best option. Vijayakumar is currently a researcher at Riso University in Denmark.

Students for the five-year programme at Cusat are selected through an all-India entrance exam. Applicants should have passed Plus Two with minimum 60 per cent marks. “Interestingly, we have been getting a lot of students from Bihar and Jharkhand, but there is none from West Bengal so far,” says Nampoori.

An attractive feature of the course is the low level of fees charged. A student has to pay a tuition fee of Rs 8,000 per semester.

One thing is clear. There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel for those who opt for this integrated course in photonics.