Vijayawada :
Prestigious Nayudamma Award will be jointly conferred on two eminent women scientists — Dr Tessy Thomas, missile technologist and Geeta Varadan, expert in remote sensing — for the year 2014.
The award will be presented at a special function to be held at Tenali, the home town of Y Nayudamma, on March 1. Prof Shantha Sinha, Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient and former Head of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and Founder, Manidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation, will present the award.
According to P Vishnu Murthy, founder and managing trustee of the Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Trust, it is the first time that the trust is honouring two eminent women scientists concurrently. They will be the second and third women awardees, the first being Dr. V. Shanta of the Adyar Cancer Research Institute, Chennai.
The award, instituted in 1986 by the Dr. Yelavarthy Nayudamma Memorial Trust in Tenali (Andhra Pradesh), to commemorate the distinguished Scientist and internationally renowned leather technologist Nayudamma, is annually given away to persons chosen for their outstanding contribution to science and technology.
Dr Tessy Thomas, who has earned sobriquets like ‘Agniputri’ and ‘Missile Woman of India’ for her outstanding efforts in successfully launching the prestigious Agni series missiles, including the latest Agni-V, is the Director of the Advanced Systems Laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Hyderabad. She has been associated with Agni Programme right from its developmental flights.
Making a mark in missile technology, a traditionally male bastion, she has designed the guidance scheme for long range missile systems which is used in all Agni missiles. An energy management guidance scheme was designed and developed for the first time in the country for an all-solid propelled long range systems by her, for which she was conferred with Agni Self-Reliance Award in 2001.
Geeta Varadan is a renowned scientist and technocrat in the field of remote sensing. She is the first woman to head an ISRO centre as Director of the Advanced Data Processing Research Institute, Secunderabad.
As ISRO’s Programme Director (Special Projects), she conceptualised and operationalised the Cartosat 2A/2B and the GSAT-7 programmes for remote sensing and communications respectively. In addition, she has pioneered the development of a real time satellite data processing system using state-of-the-art GP/GPU technology.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / February 15th, 2015