On a late spring afternoon in Columbus, Dr. Tarunjit Singh Butalia stands beneath the stone arches of Hitchcock Hall, the hum of student footsteps echoing across the quad. He is dressed casually—a blazer over a crisp shirt—yet carries an air of quiet authority. By day, he directs Ohio State’s Coal Combustion Products Program and teaches future engineers the art of transforming industrial by-products into building materials. By night, he is the Executive Director of Religions for Peace USA, orchestrating interfaith coalitions across the country. In both arenas, he is driven by the same conviction: that what divides us need not define us, and that the bridges we build—whether of concrete or of understanding—can outlast the forces that erode them.
Butalia’s journey to this dual vocation began in Punjab, India, amid stories of a family torn apart by the 1947 Partition. In 1989, he arrived in Columbus to pursue a doctorate in civil engineering at Ohio State, his head filled more with soil mechanics than scripture. Yet a chance encounter with a local Catholic priest prompted him to revisit the faith of his childhood. He recalls asking himself, “Do I even want to continue being religious?” and then, more profoundly, “What religious tradition should I be a part of?” It was advice that rooted him more deeply in Sikhism even as it opened his heart to other traditions.
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