Birbal Sahni FRS (14 November 1891 – 10 April 1949) was an Indian paleobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. He also took an interest in geology and archaeology. He founded what is now the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany at Lucknow in 1946. His major contributions were in the study of the fossil plants of India and in plant evolution. He was also involved in the establishment of Indian science education and served as the President of the National Academy of Sciences, India and as an Honorary President of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm. Formative years Birbal Sahni was born in Bhera, Shahpur District, in today's Pakistani Punjab, on 14 November 1891. He was the third child of Ishwar Devi and the pioneer Indian meteorologist and scientist Lala Ruchi Ram Sahni who lived in Lahore. The family came from Dera Ismail Khan and they frequently made visits to Bhera which was close to the Salt Range and Khewra's geology may have interested Birbal at a young age. Birbal was also influenced into science by his grandfather who owned a banking business at Dera Ismail Khan and conducted amateur research in chemistry. Ruchi Ram was a professor of chemistry at Lahore and was also a social activist with an interest in the emancipation of women. Ruchi Ram had studied at Manchester and worked with Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr. Every summer, Ruchi Ram would take his sons on long treks in the Himalayas, visiting Pathankot, Rohtang, Narkanda, Chini Pass, Amarnath, Machoi Glacier and Jozila Pass between 1907 and 1911. Ruchi Ram was involved in the non-co-operation movement since the Jallianwala Bagh massacre as well as the Brahmo Samaj movement. The proximity of their house to Bradlaugh Hall made their home a centre of political activity and house guests included Motilal Nehru, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Sarojini Naidu, and Madan Mohan Malaviya. Birbal Sahni received his early education in India at the Mission and Central Model School Lahore, Government College University, Lahore (where his father worked, receiving a B.Sc. in 1911) and Punjab University. The family library included books in science, literary classics and he learnt botany under Shiv Ram Kashyap (1882-1934), the "father of Indian bryology" and travelled with Kashyap to Chamba, Leh, Baltal, Uri, Poonch and Gulmarg between 1920 and 1923. He followed his brothers to England and graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1914. He later studied