G.P. Talwar at 100: scientist, institution builder, lifelong researcher

At any gathering, you could easily spot him by his colourful printed shirt or jacket. His tall stature, smiling face, and warm handshakes have put generations of students, researchers, and scientists at ease.

Since 1956, when he joined the founding faculty of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, he has never stopped working at the bench. Along the way, he developed the world’s first leprosy vaccine and a hormonal birth control vaccine, founded India’s first immunology institution, mentored hundreds of students, and continues his research work at a private R&D institution he established after retirement. That’s Gursaran Prasad Talwar, Pran to friends and colleagues, who turns 100 on October 2, today.

Gaining experience

Talwar had a troubled childhood. His mother passed away a week after delivering him in 1926, at her mother’s place in Hisar, then in undivided Punjab. His father, a science postgraduate from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), ran a small pharmacy and dispensary in Lahore, where he shifted after remarrying. After a few years of schooling at a madrasa in Hoshiarpur, his father admitted Talwar to the Central Model School in Lahore. His excellent performance in the matriculation exam got him into the Government College Lahore, where he did his BSc Honours and MSc (tech).

As part of the postgraduation course, Talwar came to work at a pharmaceutical manufacturing unit in the Kangra Valley in the summer of 1947 but was caught in the communal frenzy that followed the partition of Punjab. He somehow made it to Lahore only to find that his family had migrated to India. Thus he landed in Delhi in late 1947 and started looking for jobs.

At this time, European countries began offering scholarships for higher education to Indian students via the Government of India. Talwar applied, and he was shortlisted and given a choice. “I chose France. Their national echo ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité’ appealed to my leftist leanings,” Talwar recalled. He joined the fermentation laboratory of the Pasteur Institute, but soon shifted to the biochemistry wing. He completed his Docteur es Sciences degree in 1953. After two years of postdoctoral work in Germany and working in an industrial concern in Milan in Italy, Dr. Talwar returned to India in 1955. His idea was to gain necessary experience for starting a pharmaceutical or chemical business in India.