Professor Satish Dhawan: Father of experimental fluid Dynamic research
When our scientist were launching moon mission CHANDRAYAN 2 on 22.07.2019
, I was reading biography of such a person who was Mathematician and Aerospace
Engineer and will always be remembered as father of experimental fluid Dynamic
research In India. He is no one else but Professor Satish Dhawan. A great
scientist Vikram Sarabhai was visionary. His vision gave the birth to Indian
Institute of Management (IIM) and Indian Space Research organisation (ISRO) and
Prof. Satish Dhawan shaped ISRO with its speedy program by using management
methods and building organisational structure. Due to his efforts, ISRO has
developed such technology which is inspiring many young Indians to give their
contribution towards the space program to reach the stars and became most
dynamic and successful scientific institution.
From Yogesh Gogwekar.
Prof. Satish Dhawan
born on 25th September 1920 In Srinagar, Kashmir. He did his graduation in
Mechanical Engineering, in Mathematics and also in Physics from Lahore
University. He also did his Masters of
Art in English Literature from same University. He did his M.S. in Aeronautical
Engineering from the University of Minnesota, USA and also joined to California
Institute of Technology for further research. He had also done double Ph.D. in
Mathematics and Aerospace Engineering.
After getting his
degrees in Aeronautical Engineering and Mathematics, he joined as a senior
scientific officer in the department of Aeronautical Engineering at the Indian
Institute of Science and within the span of four years he became the head of
the department where he equally devoted his time to his research work and
towards Indian space programme. In 1962, at the age of 42 years, he became
director of Indian Institute of Science. The first supersonic wind tunnel which
produces supersonic speeds was built in India under the leadership of Prof.
Dhawan at Vikarm Sarabhai Service centre in Kerala. He helped to resolve the
issue of the AVRO (HS-748) passenger aircraft. He only laid the foundation for
fluid dynamic research centre in India.
Prof. Satish Dhawan
had created the institutions because he thought that institutions only brought
a spirit of research and bigger than the individual. According to him, only
institutions bring disciplines in decision making structure in modern
engineering works. He encouraged the young students of India by starting Molecular
Biophysics department and the research work in atmospheric sciences in such way
to develop growth strategies for future ongoing projects. His Project
management methods are being used not only within the group of ISRO but also in
many industries and academic institutions.
Apart from his work
in ISRO, Prof. Dhawan worked as professor for California institute of
Technology and also worked as a head of the several Indian Organisations like
National Aerospace Laboratories, Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian Space
Commission. For his tremendous
contributions, Indian Government honoured him with Padma Vibhushan in 1981,
Padma Bhushan in 1971 and Indira Gandhi award in 1999. The Satellite launce
Centre at Shiharikota has also been named after him in his honour.
Professor Satish Dhawan was a great Indian personality in scientific space
research work. His leadership qualities and dedication for his work helped
India to achieve great progress in Space programs and his research works in
fluid dynamics have been described in a book by the title Boundary Layer
theory. He always used to encourage the
youngsters by giving them credit for their work and taking the responsibility
for their failures. In this case, I am sharing the experience of former
President APJ ABDUL KALAM who was working as project director for launching India’s first launch vehicle SVL-3 on 10th August 1979 and this
project was totally failure. Prof. Dhawan immediately shouldered the
responsibility of this failure and said the following words.
“If you do not have a mission, no problem will occur,
but if you do have a mission or task definitely problems of varying magnitudes
will crop up. But problems should not become the master of the individuals;
individuals should become the master of the problem, defeat it and succeed.”
Such a great person died on 03rd January 2002 and with his
death India has lost a distinguished scientist who built the institutions to
achieve a great success in scientific research work.
Date : 28/07/2019
Mumbai
Great ЁЯСМ
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