Dr. Abdul Kalam's Academic and Professional Career:

• Abdul Kalam studied at the Rameswaram Elementary School at Rameswaram and then at the Schwartz High School at Ramanathapuram. In 1950, he went to St. Joseph’s College, Trichy, to study for the Intermediate examination. He stayed at the St. Joseph’s campus for 4 years and obtained a B. Sc. Degree. After this, he joined the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) and completed a degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

• He worked at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bangalore as a trainee. In 1958, he joined the Directorate of Technical Development and Production DTD&P (Air) of the Ministry of Defence at Delhi, as Senior Scientific Assistant. Here, he was posted at the Technical Centre (Civil Aviation), where he carried out a design assignment on supersonic target aircraft with the help of the officer-in-charge. He was sent to the Aircraft and Armament Testing Unit (A&ATU), Kanpur, to gain shop-floor exposure to aircraft maintenance. Here, he was involved in the performance assessment of the Gnat Mk I aircraft’s operation systems. After this, he returned to Delhi, where he worked for three years. His experiences included working as part of the design team of a DART target, undertaking a preliminary design study on a Human Centrifuge, design and development of a Vertical Takeoff and Landing Platform, and the development and construction of the Hot Cockpit.

• He was posted to the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore. Here, he was made team leader of the four-person team (at the level of Scientific Assistant), formed to design and develop an indigenous hovercraft prototype as a ground equipment machine (GEM). The team completed a working hovercraft (“Nandi”) moving on an air cushion of about 40 mm. with a load of 550 kg., including the tare weight.

• He was appointed as Rocket Engineer at the Indian Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR). Here, he first underwent a familiarization course at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Computer Centre.

• Later, when the Equatorial Rocket Launching Station was set up at Thumba, in Kerala, he was sent to work there.

• He went to America for a six-month training programme on sounding rocket launching techniques, at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) work centres. At NASA, he worked at the Langley Research Centre (LRC) in Hampton, Virginia; Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC) at Greenbelt, Maryland; and the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast, Virginia.

• He returned from NASA and continued work at INCOSPAR. He was asked by Prof. Sarabai to take up studies on a rocket-assisted take-off system (RATO) for military aircraft.

• Under the Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme, Abdul Kalam was assigned the task of providing interface support to payload scientists. This programme was responsible for the development and fabrication of sounding rockets and their associated on-board systems for scientific investigations in India. Operational sounding rockets with wide ranging capabilities were developed.

• At the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station (TERLS), he was involved with rocket preparation activities, payload assembly, testing and evaluation, and building subsystems like payload housing and jettisonable nose cones. He played a vital role in the development of the Indian rockets Rohini and Menaka.

• Dr. Abdul Kalam and Group Captain V S Narayanan (Air Headquarters) were assigned the task of developing a rocket-assisted take-off system (RATO) for military aircraft. The system was successfully tested in October, 1972.

• He was inducted as a member in the Missile Panel formed in the Ministry of Defence (India).

• Dr. Abdul Kalam was chosen to be a project leader of the team formed to develop Indian Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV). He was also given the additional responsibility of designing the fourth stage of the SLV.

• He was appointed Project Manager – SLV, and reported directly to the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). His first job involved working out a project management plan. The SLV Project initiated the indigenous development of the required technologies and components.

• In 1975, Dr. Kalam was part of the review committee formed to evaluate the work carried out in the ‘Devil’ project. This project involved the development of an indigenous surface-to-air missile. Dr. Kalam, as a rocket specialist, had to evaluate the progress made in the areas of aerodynamics, structure and propulsion of the missile.

• In July 1980, India’s first Satellite Launch Vehicle, SLV-3 took off and successfully put the Rohini satellite into a low earth orbit.

• Dr. Kalam took up position of Director, Aerospace Dynamics and Design Group at VSSC.

• In 1981, he was conferred with the Padma Bhushan award. In 1982, he was appointed Director, Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL).

• Dr. Kalam was conferred with the honorary degree of Doctor of Science, by Anna University, Chennai.

• In DRDL, the Missile Technology Committee was formed. This committee came up with the Guided Missile Development Programme. In order to draw up a clear and well-defined missile development programme for the production of indigenous missiles, a committee was formed under Dr. Kalam’s chairmanship.

• The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGDMP) was launched in July 1983. The proposed projects were surface-to-surface weapon system (Prithvi), tactical core vehicle (Trishul), surface–to-air area defence system (Akash), anti-tank missile project (Nag) and re-entry experiment launch vehicle (Agni). A Science Council was created in DRDL, where all the scientists would sit together and take common decisions.

• Dr. Kalam was involved in the creation of Research Centre Imarat (RCI), which was to be a high technology research centre with very advanced technical facilities like an inertial instrumentation laboratory, full-scale environmental and electronic warfare test facilities, a composites production centre, high enthalpy facility, and a state-of-the-art missile integration and checkout centre.

• In 1990, Dr. Abdul Kalam was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan award, and honorary degree of Doctor of Science by Jadavpur University.

• In 1991, he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

• He was Chairman of Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) and was involved in the preparation of Technology Vision 2020, giving a road map for transforming India from the present developing status to a developed nation.

• From 1999 to 2001, Dr. Kalam was the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, in the rank of Cabinet Minister. He was responsible for evolving policies, strategies and missions for many development applications.

• Dr. Kalam was also the Chairman, Ex-officio, of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SAC-C) and piloted India Millennium Mission 2020.

• From November 2001, he was Professor of Technology and Societal Transformation, Anna University, Chennai. He was involved in research and teaching tasks.

• On 25th July, 2002, he was sworn in as President of India and continues in his post, as of date.