Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam is a scientist-turned-Executive Head. He was born on October 15, 1931 at Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu. He studied at Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram. He graduated in Science from St. Joseph’s College as Truchi. He did his D.M.I.T. in Aeronautical Engineering at M.I.T., Chennai. Kalam joined Hindustan Aeronautics Limited at Bangalore as a trainee.
Later, he joined the D.T.D. & P. as Senior Scientific Assistant. At A.D.E., he served as a Senior Scientific Assistant heading a small team that developed a prototype hovercraft. As Director of D.R.D.O., he worked on the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. Under Kalam’s guidance, India successfully launched many missiles like Trishul in 1985, Prithvi in 1998 and Agni in 1989, which earned him the title ‘Missile man of India’.
On November 25, 1999, he was appointed as the principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India. He was elected the president of India on July 25, 2002.