Tamil Nadu honours ISRO Chief with Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Award

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan, was awarded Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award by Tamil Nadu government. He was awarded in recognition of his stellar work in promotion of science and technology.

About K. Sivan

Education: He is a native of Kanniyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. The 62-year-old space scientist got a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from Madras Institute of Technology in 1980. Completing his Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, he later joined ISRO.

He is known popularly known as ‘Rocket Man’.

He has served as director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Liquid Propulsion Centre. He was chief architect of SITARA, a 6D trajectory simulation software.

He has worked on design and development of ISRO’s launch vehicles and has huge contribution towards end to end mission planning, design, and mission integration and analysis.

Under his leadership–

Historical achievement of most successful GSLV flight with indigenous cryogenic stage was made.

ISRO successfully launched its Chandrayaan-2 mission, India’s 2nd mission to the moon.

Awards: He is recipient of several awards including Dr Vikram Sarabhai Research Award (1999).

About Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award

Following the death of former President A P J Abdul Kalam in 2015, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, late J Jayalalithaa, had then announced an award in his name. She had also announced Dr Kalam’s birthday (October 15) to be observed as-Youth Renaissance Day.

The Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award is conferred upon those who work for promoting scientific growth, humanities and students’ welfare. The awardees should hail from Tamil Nadu.

Prize: It carries 8 gm gold medal, Rs.5 lakh in cash and a citation. It is given on Independence Day every year.

First Recipient: 1st Kalam award was presented by Jayalalithaa in 2015 to ISRO scientist N Valarmathi.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2019