List of Panjab University people

Not to be confused with List of University of the Punjab people.

This is a list of people affiliated with the Panjab University at Chandigarh. The list excludes people whose only connection with Panjab University is that they were awarded an honorary degree.

Faculty

• Bidyendu Mohan Deb  –professor of theoretical chemistry between 1984 and 2004
• B. N. Goswamy  –professor of art history; known for his study of Indian miniature paintings ^[1]
• Kewal Krishan (forensic anthropologist)  –professor and former chair of anthropology; known for contributions to forensic anthropology
• Kare Narain Pathak  –vice-chancellor (2000-2006) and professor of physics (1970-2001); condensed matter physicist; UGC Emeritus Fellow ^[2]

Alumni

Arts and literature

• Amitoj  –Punjabi poet ^[3]
• Shilpa Anand  –model, actress and software developer || ^[4]
• Jaspal Bhatti  –satirist and TV personality ^[5]
• Nuruddin Farah  –Somali novelist
• Mukesh Gautam  –Punjabi cinema director
• Mahie Gill  –actress who appeared in Hindi films and Punjabi films
• Sunil Grover  –comedian
• Rajesh Hamal  –actor
• Irshad Kamil  –Bollywood lyricist, poet and winner of Filmfare and IIFA Awards
• Anupam Kher  –actor
• Ayushmann Khurrana  –actor and singer
• Priyakanta Laishram  –actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter and film editor ^[6]
• Babbu Maan  –Indian Punjabi singer and poet
• Kanika Mann  –television and film actress ^[5]
• Gul Panag  –actress and model ^[7]
• Harnaaz Sandhu  –model who won Miss Universe 2021 ^[8]
• Satinder Sartaaj  –Indian Punjabi singer and poet ^[5]
• Kapil Sharma  –Indian comedian ^[5]

Business

• Sandeep Bakhshi  –MD & CEO, ICICI Bank ^{[note 1]}
• Pratip Chaudhuri  –chairman of the State Bank of India
• Sunil Bharti Mittal  –founder, chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises ^[9]
• Steve Sanghi  –CEO of Microchip Technology ^{[note 1]}

Humanities and social sciences

• Harjinder Singh Dilgeer  –historian; national professor of Sikh history; an authority on Sikh history, philosophy and scriptures; presently Director of G.N. Research Institute, Birmingham, England; author ^[a]
• Kavita Singh  –academic and Infosys Prize winner ^[10]
• Romila Thapar  –prominent historian ^[5]

Military

• Captain Vikram Batra  –Kargil war hero and Param Vir Chakra recipient ^[11]

Politics and law

Heads of state and government

• Baburam Bhattarai  –36th Prime Minister of Nepal
• Manmohan Singh  –13th Prime Minister of India ^[12]

Other politicians, civil servants, and lawyers

• Deepak Anand  –Canadian politician
• Sunil Arora  – IAS officer and Election Commissioner of India ^[13]
• Sukhbir Singh Badal  – Member of Parliament ^[5]
• Kiran Bedi  –first woman IPS officer ^[5]
• Parminder Singh Brar  –politician, sports administrator and lawyer
• William Gitau  –first Governor of the Kiambu County
• Sherub Gyeltshen  –member of the National Assembly of Bhutan and Minister for Home and Cultural Affairs
• Bhupinder Singh Hooda  –former Chief Minister of Haryana ^[5]
• Subodh Kumar Jaiswal  –CBI director
• Sukhpal Singh Khaira  –Member of the Legislative Assembly, Punjab, India
• Dalvir Singh Khangura  –
• Jagdish Singh Khehar  –44th Chief Justice of India ^[14]
• Swatanter Kumar  –former Judge, Supreme Court of India ^[5]
• Selja Kumari  –MP/Union Minister ^[5]
• Mehr Chand Mahajan  –third Chief Justice of India and former Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
• Tuhin Kanta Pandey  –chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India
• Krishan Kant Paul  –former IPS who is current governor of Uttrakhand and former governor of Meghalaya;executive director of UN Women
• Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri  –India's ambassador to Hungary (with accreditation to Bosnia and Herzegovina), 1999–2002; UN Director of UN-OHRLLS, 2009–2011; Assistant Secretary-General for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships at UN Women, 2011 until her retirement ^{[15] [16] [17]}
• Amit Rawal  –judge of the Kerala High Court ^[18]
• Rajiv Pratap Rudy  –former Union minister ^[19]
• Abhinav Singh –advocate, author, scholar and historian ^[20]
• T.V. Somanathan  – Cabinet Secretary of India
• Sushma Swaraj  –Minister of Foreign Affairs ^[5]
• Jai Ram Thakur  –chief minister of Himachal Pradesh

Science and technology

• K. K. Aggarwal  –engineer, professor and eminent IT expert ^[21]
• Kalpana Chawla  –NASA astronaut. Died on 1 February 2003 in Space Shuttle Columbia accident ^{[note 1] [22]}
• Sardul Singh Guraya  –developmental biologist and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize recipient
• Atul Gurtu  – high energy physicist
• Satinder Vir Kessar  –organic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Rajinder Kumar  –chemical engineer, former professor at the Indian Institute of Science; Padma Bhushan recipient
• Narinder Kumar Mehra  –immunologist
• Radhe Mohan  –scientist, former Chairman of Medical Physics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center ^[23]
• Manohar Lal Munjal  – acoustical engineer, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Yash Pal  –scientist and educator ^[24]
• G. V. R. Prasad  –paleontologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Sunil Saigal  –professor and a former dean of the Newark College of Engineering at NJIT ^{[note 1]}
• Ranbir Chander Sobti  –cell biologist and Padma Shri awardee
• Ajay Kumar Sood  –
• Sampat Kumar Tandon  –geologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Veena Tandon  –parasitologist and Padma Shri recipient

Sports

• Nripjit Singh Bedi  –volleyball player
• Ravi Bhardwaj  –basketball player ^[25]
• Neeraj Chopra  –track and field athlete; Olympic Games 2021 gold medalist in javelin; medalist in the Asian and Commonwealth games ^[26]
• Yashaswini Singh Deswal  –shooter
• Malaika Goel  –shooter
• Anjum Moudgil  –shooter ^{[27] [28]}

Others

• Shekhar Gupta  –journalist, founder and editor-in-chief of ThePrint
• Vandana Shiva  – environmental activist
• Tarun Tejpal  –founder-editor Tehelka ^[29]

References

Notes

1. Wrote Sikh History in 10 Volumes, Translator of Guru Granth Sahib (in English), creator of Navan Te Vadda Mahan Kosh (4 volumes, 2748 pages), plus writer of 60 books.

1. The Punjab Engineering College was affiliated to the Panjab University between 1953 and 2003.

Citations

1. Kartik Chandra Dutt (1999). Who's who of Indian Writers, 1999: A-M. Sahitya Akademi. pp. 413 of 1490. ISBN   9788126008735 . Retrieved 2019-05-14.
2. "K.N. Pathak". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
3. Dutt, Nirupama (29 August 2005). "Obituary: Amitoj's poems live after him". The Tribune, Chandigarh. Retrieved 11 January 2026.
4. Prerna Shah (13 August 2007). "Shilpa Anand is not a B-grade actress". The Times of India. TNN. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
5. "Distinguished Alumni". Department of Alumni Relations, Panjab University. Archived from the original on 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
6. "Priyakanta Laishram: Torchbearer of Manipur queer cinema". Northeast Now. 9 May 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
7. "About Gul Panag". gulpanag.net. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
8. "Miss Universe Harnaaz lives up to her name, family elated in Punjab". Hindustan Times. 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2021-12-15.
9. "Alumni-Sunil Mittal". Bharti Airtel.
10. "Infosys Prize - Laureates 2018 - Prof. Kavita Singh". www.infosys-science-foundation.com. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
11. Kapur, Aarti (26 July 2015). "'Yaaro ka yaar' Capt Vikram Batra remembered by family, teachers, friends". The Tribune . Archived from the original on 2017-10-24. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
12. "About Department of Economics". Economics Department, Panjab University.
13. "Election Commissioner - Shri Sunil Arora". Election Commission of India . Retrieved September 30, 2017.
14. "Jagdish Singh Khehar 1st Sikh to be sworn-in as the Chief Justice of India". Business Standard India. 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
15. "Ms Lakshmi Puri appointed UN-OHRLLS director". UN-OHRLLS. Archived from the original on September 25, 2019. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
16. "Lakshmi Puri: Equal Means Equal". EqualMeansEqual.com. 7 February 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
17. "Secretary-General Appoints Lakshmi Puri of India Assistant Secretary-General for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships, UN Women". UN Department of Public Information. 11 March 2011. Secretary-General Press Press Doc ID: SG/A/1283 BIO/4274 WOM/1857. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
18. https://laws.puchd.ac.in/index.php
19. "Made in Chandigarh: Panjab University groomed me for politics, says MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy". 2018-06-22.
20. https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9089-3518
21. "Prof. K. K. Aggarwal". centumu.edu.in. Archived from the original on 6 August 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
22. "Alumni-Kalpana Chawla". Tripod.com.
23. "Radhe Mohan - MD Anderson Cancer Center". faculty.mdanderson.org. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
24. "Space Applications Centre". sac.gov.in. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
25. "The big leap: Cager from Chandigarh wins India colours". Hindustan Times. 2016-07-08. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
26. "World record holder Neeraj Chopra gets Army job, starts supporting farmer father - Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 2018-01-23. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
27. Behal, Arsh (May 3, 2018). "'I'm happy my record can never be broken' | Chandigarh News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
28. "4 DAV College-10 shooters all set for World Cup". Hindustan Times. 2015-08-05. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
29. "Tarun Tejpal Editor-in-chief, Tehelka.com". Business Week. 2 July 2001.