India's former president/Nuclear Scientist and Missile Man passes away

www.ndtv.com...
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam died on Monday at a hospital in Meghalaya, where he had gone to deliver a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management in Shillong, reports Press Trust of India. He was 83.

Abdul Kalam's career achievements

He was born in a fishermen family, his schooling was sponsored by a temple caretaker he never took leave from work except for two days in a year - one on his father's death anniversary and he other on his mother's death anniversary - a truly great man. Kalam distributed newspapers to financially contribute to his father's income. In his school years, he had average grades, but was described as a bright and hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn and spend hours on his studies, especially mathematics.

Started to work on the Satellite Launching Vehicle (SLV) project. Kalam first started work on an expandable rocket project independently at DRDO in 1965. In 1969, Kalam received the government's approval and expanded the programme to include more engineers.

In 1963–64, he visited NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and Wallops Flight Facility situated at Eastern Shore of Virginia. During the period between the 1970s and 1990s, Kalam made an effort to develop the Polar Satellite Launching Vehicle (PSLV) and SLV-III projects, both of which proved to be success.

Kalam also directed two projects, namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant , which sought to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme. Despite the disapproval of Union Cabinet, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allotted secret funds for these aerospace projects through her discretionary powers under Kalam's directorship. Kalam played an integral role convincing the Union Cabinet to conceal the true nature of these classified aerospace projects

Kalam was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister, and the Secretary of Defence Research and Development Organisation from July 1992 to December 1999. The Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period in which he played an intensive political and technological role. Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator, along with R. Chidambaram during the testing phase.

Kalam served as the 11th President of India, succeeding K R Narayanan.He served from 25 July 2002 to 25 July 2007.

2014 Doctor of Science Edinburgh University,UK
2012 Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) Simon Fraser University
2011 IEEE Honorary Membership IEEE
2010 Doctor of Engineering University of Waterloo
2009 Honorary Doctorate Oakland University
2009 Hoover Medal ASME Foundation, USA
2009 International von Kármán Wings Award California Institute of Technology, USA
2008 Doctor of Engineering (Honoris Causa) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
2007 King Charles II Medal Royal Society, UK
2007 Honorary Doctorate of Science University of Wolverhampton, UK


en.wikipedia.org...

Sounds like a national hero for India.

I never knew about him, but I'm always happy to see when engineers make it into important political positions.