Do you know India's Missile Woman Scientist Dr Tessy Thomas?

Do you know India's 'Agniputri' or 'Missile-Woman of India' Dr Tessy Thomas?

Surely there will be such readers who do not know about them at all. If you do not know, then you must be curious to know about this excellent woman.

Dr. Tessy Thomas is the Director General of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and the first Indian woman to manage a missile project.

India's missile man Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam does not need any introduction. He has dedicated his whole life to the interest of the country and to the research and development of missiles like Prithvi, Akash, Agni, Nag, Dhanush, Trishul, and BrahMos under the country's missile program.

3500 Kms of India to Dr. Tessy Thomas. After the successful test of the Agni-4 missile, which had the capability to strike, it was addressed by the name of Agniputri.

Missile Woman Dr. Tessy Thomas has also given her entire life to the research and development of all versions of the missile project from advanced and refined Agni 2 to Agni 5. She considers Dr. Abdul Kalam as her mentor, who is considered the father of India's missile program and project.

The whole world acknowledged Dr. Tessy Thomas when on 19 April 2012, as the Project Director of Agni-5, she successfully test-fired Agni-5 missile with a strike range of 5,000 km.

Today our country India is the fifth country in the world with the capability of Intercontinental Missile System (ICBM) with a range of 5000 km. Till the attack of his missile, India can stack any enemy in his house.

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Biography

Dr. Tessy Thomas was born in April 1963 in Alappuzha, Kerala State in a Syrian Christian family. She was named Tessy after Mother Teresa.

Tessy Thomas received her early education from St. Michael's Higher Secondary School and St. Joseph's Girls' Higher Secondary School. When she was 13 years old, her father suffered a stroke that left the right side of her body paralyzed. Her mother, who was a teacher, after this accident accepted to become a housewife to take care of the family.

Tessy Thomas spent her childhood near the Thumba Rocket Station. During her school days, NASA's Apollo vehicle was about to land on the moon. She was getting inspired by hearing about that vehicle every day that one day she too should make such a rocket, which can touch the height of the sky. And from there her interest in missiles intensified.

She did Electrical Engineering from Trichur Engineering College in Calicut (Kerala). And after that M. Tech. Passed the entrance examination of 'Defence Institute of Advanced Technology' located in Pune. She was one of the three students to pass this exam and also the first woman.

Received ME degree in Guided Missiles from Ordnance Institute of Technology (now Defense Institute of Advanced Technology), Pune in 1986 and Ph.D. in Missile Guidance from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNU), Hyderabad in 2014. She obtained her MBA degree in Operations Management from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) New Delhi in 2007.

Dr. Tessy Thomas has four sisters and one brother. She is married to Commander Saroj Kumar in the Indian Navy. They have a son named Tejas.

In 1988, Dr. Tessy Thomas joined DRDO where she worked under Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. She was appointed to the design and development department of the ballistic missile Agni. For the Agni program, she was appointed by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. She played a key role in the development of Agni, a long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile. She is one of the women working on strategic nuclear ballistic missiles in the world.

Dr. Tessy Thomas is an expert in Solid Propellants Systems and Guided Missile Systems.

Dr. Tessy Thomas played a key role in the research of the Agni-II missile which achieved a range of 3,000 km. Distance was the associate project director of the Agni-III missile project. She was the project director of Mission Agni IV, which was successfully tested in 2011.

Dr Tessy Thomas was appointed as the Project Director for the 5,000 km range Agni-V in 2008. Agni-V was successfully test-fired on 19 April 2012. She was appointed as the Director General of Aeronautical Systems of DRDO in 2018. And now she is one of the biggest experts on ballistic missiles.

The experience of delay due to bad weather at the time of testing of Agni-V gave another great inspiration to Dr. Tessy Thomas and she developed an important missile technology Re-Entry Vehicle System (REVS). This state-of-the-art REVS technology makes the missile adaptable even in adverse weather conditions. And even at 3000 °C temperature, it cannot stop it from reaching the target. This technology enables the long-range missile to go out of the atmosphere and come back into the atmosphere to penetrate its target so that the enemy can be stacked in his house even when the weather is bad.

This missile journey of hers has not stopped. Dr. Tessy Thomas is now busy making the Navy version of the Agni-5 missile. With this, the enemy can be defeated even by the way of water. She herself revealed the making of the missile at the International Seminar of the Association for Machine and Mechanism and the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science at IIT Mandi.

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Award

Dr. Tessy Thomas has been awarded the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award in 2012. This award has been given for her remarkable contribution to making India self-reliant in the field of missile technology. She has also been honored with the Kalpana Chawl Award. She has been awarded honorary degrees of DSC by five different universities including ITM University, Gwalior in 2016.

Dr. Tessy Thomas has been awarded five times by DRDO in 2001, 2007, and 2008 for the development of special technologies.

• DRDO Outstanding Performance Award for Agni 4 in 2011 and Agni 5 in 2012.
• Suman Sharma Award by The Institute of Engineers (India), National Design and Research Forum for Engineering Design in 2009.
• Madame Marie Curie Women's Science Award – 2012
• India Today Women of the Year Award – 2009
• CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Award – 2012

Outstanding Women Award by National Commission for Women on International Women's Day – 2013

Vanitha Ratnam Puraskaram by the Department of Social Justice, Government of Kerala, for the year 2014 for outstanding contribution in the field of Missile Technology to Dr. Nayudamma Memorial Award, “Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Award – 2016” by The Institution of Engineers (India), Telangana State Centre, Hyderabad for outstanding contribution in the field of Engineering towards Design, Development and Installation of Indigenous Missile Systems

“Eminent Women Scientist Award” in 2016 by Andhra Pradesh Science Congress, Andhra Pradesh Academy of Sciences for her contribution in the field of Missile Technology.

It is unfair to say that women are only capable of taking care of the household. Women can achieve progress in any field with their skill, intelligence, loyalty, and dutifulness.

Dr. Tessy Thomas is a source of inspiration for Indian women. All women should learn from her that every path can be made easier with the will to do something and the determination to keep moving towards your goal and to do better.

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