Gobind Behari Lal was an Indian-American journalist and independence activist. A relative and close associate of

Lala Har Dayal Lala Har Dayal Mathur ( Punjabi: ਲਾਲਾ ਹਰਦਿਆਲ; 14 October 1884 – 4 March 1939) was an Indian nationalist revolutionary and freedom fighter. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple ...

, he joined the Ghadar Party and participated in the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal ...

. He arrived the United States on a scholarship to study at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

. Later, he worked as a science editor for the Hearst Newspapers. In 1937, he became the first Indian to win the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

Early life

Gobind Behari Lal was born to Bishan Lal, the Governor of the Bikaner princely state. His mother's name was Jagge Devi. He obtained B.Sc. and

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degrees from the Punjab University at Lahore. He served as an assistant professor at the University from 1909 to 1912. Lal was the cousin of the Indian nationalist

's wife, and participated in the

. Har Dayal set up the Guru Govind Singh Sahib Educational Scholarship to encourage Indian students to gain scientific education. Lal began attending the

in 1912 on this scholarship. He completed his

postgraduate education Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and st ...

there.

Career

Lal served as the Science Editor for ''

The San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'' from 1925 to 1930. He was the first journalist to use the term "Science Writer" in his

byline The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably '' Reader' ...

. He went on to work for other Hearst Newspapers concerns in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Lal wrote on a variety of topics, and interviewed many notable figures, including

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

Mohandas K. Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, H. L. Mencken, Edna St. Vincent Millay,

Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" an ...

and

Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...

. Lal shared the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting with John J. O'Neill,

William L. Laurence William Leonard Laurence (March 7, 1888 – March 19, 1977) was a Jewish American science journalist best known for his work at '' The New York Times''. Born in the Russian Empire, he won two Pulitzer Prizes. As the official historian of the ...

, Howard W. Blakeslee and David Dietz. The group won the award for their coverage of science at the tercentenary of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

. Lal was one of the founding members of the

National Association of Science Writers The National Association of Science Writers (NASW) was created in 1934 by a dozen science journalists and reporters in New York City.

, and served as the Association's President in 1940. Lal died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in 1982 at the age of 92, a few weeks after writing his last article.

Awards and recognitions

(1937) *

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

(1969) * ''Tamra Patra'' (1973) by Government of India for participating in the Indian independence movement The ''Gobind Behari Lal Scholarship in Science Journalism'' awarded by the Center for South Asia Studies of UC Berkeley was named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lal, Gobind Behari University of the Punjab alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni 1889 births 1982 deaths People from Delhi San Francisco Examiner people Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education Emigrants from British India to the United States