Dr Tessy Thomas is the first woman scientist to head a missile project in India. Born in April, 1963 in Alappuzha, Kerala, she attributes her fascination with rockets and missiles to growing up near the Thumba Rocket Launching Station in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
While in school, Thomas had a natural flair in mathematics and scored 100 per cent in the subject during her 11th and 12th years in school. She has a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from Calicut University, an ME in Guided Missiles from the Institute of Armament Technology, Pune and a PhD in Missile Guidance from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad. She also has an MBA in Operations Management from Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.
Thomas joined DRDO in 1988 and was appointed by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam to the Agni Project. Nicknamed ‘Agni Putri’ or daughter born of fire, she is the first woman to lead a missile team in India. She was the project director of the Agni IV missile project, which was successfully tested in 2011 and for the Agni-V project, which was successfully tested in 2012.
Agni-IV is an intermediate-range ballistic missile with a range of 4,000 km and Agni V is a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 8,000 km. Thomas’ expertise with solid propellent systems was critical to the development of the re-entry system of the missiles. This helped it withstand great velocities and temperatures of 3,000°Celsius on re-entering the atmosphere.
In 2018, she became the Director-General, Aeronautical Systems of DRDO. She is the recipient of several awards for her work, including the ‘DRDO Scientist of the Year’ in 2008 and the CNN-IBN ‘Indian of the Year’ in 2012.
Picture Credit : Google
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