Missile Woman of India
Agni-putri (born out of fire)
She is called Agni-putri or born out of fire and missile woman of India.
Growing up near Thumba rocket launching station Tessy became fascinated by rockets and missiles and she passionately pursued her dreams.
Life-long passion for learning
She obtained her BTech from Calicut University in Electrical Engineering in 1985, her M.Tech from Institute of Armament Technology (under DRDO) in guided missiles in 1986, MBA from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in 2007 and PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) in 2014.
Agni-Pariksha (a trial by fire)
Tessy was working in all male dominated field at the time.
During her M.Tech, Tessy Thomas was spotted by APJ Abdul Kalam (Missile man of India) for her work on gyro-less navigation and bought her under his team for Agni-III project.
She became associated with Agni missiles program from its development. She and her team designed the guidance scheme for long-range missile systems, which is used in all Agni missiles.
Her struggles were not an easy one, for example in 2006, a missile failed to meet re-entry parameters, Tessy and her team worked 12 to 16 hours a day even on weekends for 10 months to make it a success.
Tessy was associate project director for Agni-III and project director for Agni-IV, with success of Angi IV in 2011 India became 6th nation to have intercontinental ballistic missile.
Tessy reached her career milestone when 5,000 km range Agni-V that tested successfully on 2012 for which Tessy was the Project Director. Success of Agni-V was a huge milestone for India, and Tessy was nicknamed as Missile woman of India.
In 2018, Tessy Thomas was appointed as Director General for aeronautical systems at DRDO, and won several national accolades including Lal Bahadur Shastri National award for making India self reliant in missile technology.
From Missile man of India to Missile woman of India, the life came in full circle.
Reference:
https://www.viralindiandiary.com/tessy-thomas-the-missile-woman-of-india/
http://100extraordinarywomen.blogspot.com/2020/09/dr-tessy-thomas.html
https://www.beaninspirer.com/tessy-thomas-first-indian-woman-scientist-head-missile-project-india/
