THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, one of the architects of India’s space program, is set to become the nation’s only former president to take up a teaching position after leaving office. A week after he agreed to be on the faculty of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) for a year, Kalam has accepted the offer of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IISST) to be its chancellor. He would return to Kerala after two decades as the chancellor of the world’s first space institute that offers undergraduate programs. He needs to stay in the state at least for ten days every month to fulfill his responsibilities.
“I’m happy to be back in Kerala where I worked for 20 long years,” Kalam told a Malayalam television channel while reacting to the news in New Delhi last week. “I long to go back to Kerala and teach the students,” the man known as “people’s president” said. Kalam worked at the Vikarm Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC), a unit of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) since its inception in the early 1960s till 1982.
The ISRO opened the specialized space research engineering college here last year as a deemed university from the VSSC campus and a permanent campus is being built with the assistance of the state government at a cost of 278 crore rupees (2.78bn) on a 100-acre area.
The IIST offers two four-year B. Tech programs in avionics and aerospace, and a five-year integrated postgraduate program in applied sciences. The institute has announced three M. Tech. courses in radio frequency and microwave, adoptive optics and soft computing beginning 2009.
The number of students who enrolled in 2008 rose to 150 from 138 in 2007 for the three programs. The new residential campus, foundation stone for which is to be laid by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next month, is expected to be ready in 20 months.
He had visited the institute and addressed the first batch last year. “He will do research on futuristic space technologies here,” one official told reporters. “He is the country’s topmost rocket scientist and to have him as chancellor of the IIST is a blessing”.
Kalam was the project director of the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) first two SLV-3 (satellite launch vehicles) flights in 1979 and 1980 from Sriharikotta, putting the Rohini satellite in orbit. He was also the architect of India’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Program that developed Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Trishul and Nag missiles. “We are glad that he’s taking up the assignment as the chancellor of the world’s first space university that offers undergraduate programs and we would be extending all our cooperation,” Kerala Education Minister M.A. Baby said.