Tessy thomas project director

Meet India’s Missile Woman, Tessy Thomas. She is the first woman scientist to lead a missile project in the country. Tessy was Associate Project Director of the 3,000 km range Agni-III missile project. She was the Project Director for mission Agni IV, which was successfully tested in 2011. Tessy was appointed the Project Director for 5,000 km range Agni V, the long-range, nuclear-capable missile that was tested successfully in 2012. In January 2012, the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh told the Indian Science Congress that Tessy is an example of a “woman making her mark in a traditionally male bastion and decisively breaking the glass ceiling.” The media loves to call her Agni Putri, or one born from fire, after the missiles she has helped develop. Agni V has succeeded, but she barely has a moment to exult, as she works 12-hours a day, even on Sunday for two more tests that have to be conducted before the 5,000-km intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) can be given to the defence forces. Tessy Thomas’s Achievements 1. 2014: Received the Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award 2. 2012: She was awarded Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award by President Pranab Mukherjee

Agni-IV ("Fire") is the fourth in the Agni II prime. It has been developed by India's DRDO and displayed a number of new technologies and significant improvement in missile technology. The missile is light-weight and has two stages of solid propulsion and a payload with re-entry heat shield. Development [ ] This missile is one of a kind, proving many new technologies for the first time, and represents a significant leap in India's missile technology. The missile is lighter in weight and uses a Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Director General DRDO, who witnessed the launch, congratulated all the scientists and employees of DRDO and the Armed Forces for the successful launch of AGNI-IV. Sri Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles & Strategic Systems), DRDO and Programme Director of AGNI, while addressing the scientists after the launch, called it as a new era in the modern Long Range Navigation System in India. He said, "this test has paved the way ahead for the success of Project Director of Agni-IV, The DRDO had produced and proven many new state of the art technologies with the Agni-IV like composite rocket motors, very high accuracy Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System, Micro Navigation System, Digital Controller System and very powerful onboard computer system. Testing [ ] Agni-IV has undergone seven successful tests over the course of six years. • 15 November 2011: Agni-IV was succes...

There’s a lot to know about India’s Missile Woman, Dr. Tessy Thomas. The self-made missile engineer rose from humble beginnings in Kerala and managed to shatter the glass ceiling that plagued other women in her field. With only an undergraduate degree and a couple of years as an intern under her belt, she was handpicked by DRDO — India’s equivalent to NASA — at the age of 25 to lead the organization’s largest missile program: Agni V, a missile that is capable of striking any deep spot inside China with a precision, better known in missile technology (with less than 0.0001 percent ambiguity). Agni-5 the intercontinental ballistic missile is capable of taking a nuclear head deep into any spot of it’s choice inside China a weapon that is capable of making the Chinese think twice before they embark on any adventure with in any Indian territory. She is also the Chief Scientist and Director of Defense Research Development Organization, under the Defence Ministry, Govt of India. Initial days She was born in Alappuzha District of Kerala as the daughter of Taiparambil Thomas and his wife Kunjamma in 1963 Her initial schooling happened in St Joseph’s S. Her first Engineering Degree B Tech was from Trissur Govt Engineering College. Then she went on to take her MTech from Defense Institute of Advance Studies from Pune Maharashtra. She joined Defense Research Development Organization ( DRDO)in 1988. Career Her career spans over three decades and has taken her from being a scientist at ...

Tessy Thomas (born in 1964) is the Project Director for Agni-IV missile in Defence Research and Development Organisation. She is the first woman scientist to head a missile project in India. She is known as the 'Missile Woman' of India. Tessy was born in April 1963 in Alappuzha, Kerala, to a small-businessman father and a homemaker mother. She graduated in engineering from Government Engineering College, Thrissur. She grew up near a rocket launching station and says her fascination with rockets and missiles began then. She also has an M.Tech in Guided Missile from the Institute of Armament Technology, Pune (now known as the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology). Tessy was associate project director of the 3,000 km range Agni-III missile project. She was the project director for mission Agni IV which was successfully tested in 2011. Tessy was appointed as the Project Director for 5,000 km range Agni-V in 2009 and is based at the Advanced Systems Laboratory in Hyderabad. The missile was successfully tested on 19 April 2012. In January 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Indian Science Congress that Mrs Thomas is an example of a "woman making her mark in a traditionally male bastion and decisively breaking the glass ceiling". The media loves to call her Agniputri, or one born of fire, after the missiles she has helped develop. "We are all proud of our country. Agni-V is one of our greatest achievements," she says. She is married to Saroj Kumar, now a commodore in...

Hyderabad: She sees no paradox in a woman working to develop Agni-V, the indigenously developed, 5,000-km range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile that some would call a weapon of mass destruction. Scientist Tessy Thomas, who guided the team behind it, calls it a "weapon of peace" and says there is no gender discrimination in science. Associated with all the Agni series missiles, Thomas led the Agni-IV team as project director for vehicles and mission and was project director (mission) for Agni-V. "There is no gender discrimination in science because science does not know who is working for it. When I reach there for work I am no more a woman. I am only the scientist," Tessy told IANS in an interview here in the wake of the Agni-V launch last week. India successfully tests nuclear-capable new-gen 'Agni Prime' ballistic missile off Odisha coast WATCH: Indigenously developed torpedo successfully engages underwater target A rare woman in a male bastion, the 49-year-old scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) played a key role in making India's most potent inter-continental ballistic missile. The sari-clad Tessy recalls that women were two to three percent of the scientific community at DRDO in the past. "Now they are 12 to 15 percent. This difference has come about in 20 years." Tessy says the successful launch of Agni-V was a dream come true for over 2,000 scientists who were working for last three years. "It was a great moment. We have many sci...

CHENNAI: The tranquil backwaters of A rare woman in a male bastion, the 48-year-old was hooked on to science and mathematics from school days, especially wonder-struck at the rocket launches from Thumba on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram. "The world of missiles opened up for me after I happened to be picked as one of 10 youngsters from around the country for a DRDO programme in 1985," Thomas told ET in a telephone interview, while awaiting a flight from Bhubaneswar after being the toast of the nation earlier in the day. Right after she landed in DRDO, everything just happened, she says. And that includes a stint as faculty for guided missiles for DRDO in Pune, and having former President APJ Her own career went ballistic, when she headed the Agni-IV team as project director for vehicles and mission, and was project director (mission) for the more sophisticated Agni V launch. What does she have to say about a country which has women defence mission directors and, at the same time, rampant female infanticide? "Science shows no gender discrimination, and in that sense offers hope to a society where discrimination is practised. Here in DRDO, we have a good example of a number of women scientists, who try and balance work and family," she says. Her husband Thomas would ideally like to unwind with a game of badminton and some cooking, but "that hasn't happened over the past two years", thanks to the latest editions of the Agni missile programme. Now that Agni-V has been succ...

(This story originally appeared in on Apr 22, 2012)HYDERABAD: "We have certain technologies to work on," Tessy Thomas, top scientist at the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) told the Times of India here on Saturday. R K Gupta was the project director for the Agni V just like Tessy was for Agni IV. Tessy also played a crucial role as project director (mission) for Agni V. She may not have got that special treatment for Agni V, but when Agni IV was test fired successfully last year Tessy got her due. "My husband (Saroj Kumar Patel) was around then, so even I got lifted in the celebrations that broke out," Tessy said. For Agni V, Tessy had to look after the mission design, guidance, control, navigation and hardware. "It is a large mission, everyone had different responsibilities," Tessy said. While missiles are what Tessy always has in mind, strange as it may sound, her parents had named her after Mother Teresa. Interestingly, Tessy hardly finds any difference in what Mother Teresa, whom she adores, did and her own work. "She did something for the society and my job also relates to doing something for the benefit of society," she said. The missile woman, who is now referred to as 'Agni putri', has been a part of every Agni programme from the time developmental flights were being carried out 25 years ago. She designed the guidance schemes for long range missile system meant for Agni missiles. A lot of personal recognition has come Tessy Thomas' way but the missile woman prefer...