Tessy Thomas

In this Indian name, the name Thomas is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Tessy.

Tessy Thomas (born April 1963) is an Indian aerospace engineer and former Director General of Aeronautical Systems and the former Project Director for Agni-IV ballistic missile in Defence Research and Development Organisation.^[1]

Tessy Thomas
Director General (Aeronautical Systems), DRDO
In office 1 June 2018 (2018-06-01) – 30 April 2023
Preceded by	CP Ramnarayan
Succeeded by	M Z Siddique
Personal details
Born	1963 (1963) (age 62) Alappuzha, Kerala, India
Spouse	Saroj Kumar
Children	1
Occupation	Project director at DRDO
Known for	Agni Missile Project Director

Early life

Tessy Thomas was born during April 1963 in Kerala's Alappuzha.^{[citation needed]}

Career

She joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1988.^{[citation needed]} Thomas began in her career working upon the Agni missile series, where she initially contributed to the guidance and control systems, focusing specifically on inertial navigation systems.^{[citation needed]} She was Project Director of the Agni-V ICBM project.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

She is married to Saroj Kumar, a commander in the Indian Navy and they have a son,Tejas.^[2]

Awards

Thomas received the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for her contribution for making India self-reliant in the field of missile technology.^[3][4]

She was also the recipient of the Dr Thomas Cangan Leadership Award at the Faculty of Management Studies – Institute of Rural Management, Jaipur (FMS-IRM) in 2018.^[5]

Thomas won 'Woman pioneer of the year' award at ETPrime Women Leadership Awards 2023 which was held at Mumbai.^[6][7][8] The same year, she became a laureate of the Asian Scientist 100 by the Asian Scientist.^[9]

Publications

• Thomas, Tessy (1 July 2005). "Guidance Scheme for Solid Propelled Vehicle during Atmospheric Phase". Defence Science Journal. 55 (3): 253–264. doi:10.14429/dsj.55.1987.
• Sudhakar, R.; Venkanna, M.; Rao, B. V. Papa; Thomas, Tessy (2017). "Prediction of Real Gas and Non-Equilibrium Effects in the Gas Dynamics of Canister Launch Missile". 30th International Symposium on Ballistics. doi:10.12783/ballistics2017/16878. ISBN 978-1-60595-419-6.
• Thomas, Tessy; Jahagirdar, D R; Krishna, I V Murali; Varaprasad, L. (May 2013). "Online Trajectory Reshaping for a Launch Vehicle to Minimize the Final Error Caused by Navigation and Guidance". Defence Science Journal. 63 (3). New Delhi: 254–261. doi:10.14429/dsj.63.2414. ProQuest 1413260295.
• Ghogale, Shrikant; Venkanna, M.; Rao, B.V. Papa; Thomas, Tessy (2017). "Developmental Challenges during Realization of High Progressivity Rocket Motor". 30th International Symposium on Ballistics. doi:10.12783/ballistics2017/16860. ISBN 978-1-60595-419-6.

See also

• Agni (missile)