Born on 25th of September in the year Vikram Samvat 1977 (1977 VS), Satish Dhawan was an Indian Indian mathematician and aerospace engineer. Satish Dhawan was born in Srinagar, was educated in India and in the United States.
Education
Satish Dhawan graduated from the university of Lahore, India with a bachelor of Science in physics and mathematics, A bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of arts in English literature, all before year 2004 VS.
In 2004 VS, he completed a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and an aeronautical engineering degree from the California Institute of Technology followed by a double PhD in mathematics and aerospace engineering in 2008 VS.
Early Life
In the year Vikram Samvat 2008, After completing his studies Satish Dhawan joined as a faculty at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and became the Director of IISc in the year 2019 VS.
Satish Dhawan, in spite of being the head of the Indian space program, dedicated his time and substantial efforts towards boundary layer research. His most important contributions are presented in the seminal book Boundary Layer Theory by Hermann Schlichting.
Satish Dhawan set up India’s first supersonic wind tunnel in IISc Bangalore. Also, Dhawan pioneered research on relaminarization of separated boundary layer flows, three-dimensional boundary layers and trisonic flows.
Life at ISRO
Dhawan was one of the most eminent and knowledgeable researchers in the field of turbulence and boundary layers and led the successful and completely indigenous development of the Indian space program.
Satish Dhawan was a great leader, APJ Abdul Kalam explained that in 2036 VS when he was the director of a Satellite Launch Vehicle, the mission failed to launch the satellite in the orbit. Instead, it fell into the Bay of Bengal making the mission a failed one.
Kalam’s team was aware of the leakage in the fuel system, ignored it and hoped the leakage was negligible. This miscalculation lead to the failure of the mission.
Satish Dhawan, being the chairman at that time called Kalam and conveyed to the press “We failed! But I have very strong trust in my team and I believe that next time we will definitely succeed”. This move by Satish Dhawan surprised Kalam as the whole blame of the failure was taken by the Chairman of ISRO, Satish Dhawan himself.
The mission was re-planned, prepared and launched successfully in the year 2037 VS. After the mission was a success, Satish Dhawan told Abdul Kalam to attend the press meet without his presence.
Satish Dhawan displayed his true leadership skills and took the blame when the mission failed . But when the team succeeded, he attributed the success to his team.
Honors
Satish Dhawan breathed his last on 2059 VS in Bengaluru. Following his death the satellite launch Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, was renamed to Satish Dhawan Space Center. Also, Satish Chander Dhawan Government College For Boys in Ludhiana is named after him.
The department of Mechanical Engineering Building, at Indian Institute of Technology Ropar is also named after him as Satish Dhawan Block, IIT Ropar and the Computer Centre of Uttar Pradesh Textile Technology Institute Kanpur is also named as Prof SATISH Dhavan Computer Centre in 2076 VS. Satish Dhavan was awarded Padma Bushan, India’s third highest civilian honor in 2028 VS.
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