Powered by Indico
Dr. Tessy Thomas retired as the Director General of Aeronautical Systems and was the former Project Director for Agni-IV missile in Defence Research and Development Organisation. She is the first ever woman scientist to head a missile project in India. She did her B. Tech from Government Engineering College, Thrissur and an M. Tech from the Institute of Armament Technology, Pune, now known as the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology. Dr. Thomas joined the DRDO in 1988, where she worked on the design and developments of the new generation ballistic missile, Agni. She was appointed by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam for the Agni Project. In addition, Dr. Thomas was the associate project director of the 3,000 km range Agni-III missile project. She was the project director for Agni IV which was successfully tested in 2011. Later, Dr. Thomas was appointed as the project director mission of the 5,000 km range Agni-V in 2009, which was successfully tested on 19 April 2012. In 2018, she became the Director-General, Aeronautical Systems of DRDO. Dr. Thomas is the recipient of several awards for her contribution to making India self-reliant in the field of missile technology - the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award, the Dr Thomas Cangan Leadership Award at the Institute of Rural Management, (FMS-IRM) in 2018 and, the Lokmanya Tilak National Award in 2022. Recently, she won “Woman pioneer of the year” award at ETPrime Women Leadership Awards 2023.