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7/15/2020 A Tribute: Satish Dhawan (1920-2002) – A Quarterly Publication of ACCS
Among his scienti c and technical contribution to the space program was the nal con guration—solid-
liquid-solid-liquid—of India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the dependable workhorse of ISRO.
Dhawan based the con guration on a mix of factors that included available technical expertise,
infrastructure, launch schedule and funds.

Dhawan’s list of accolades include Distinguished Alumni Award in 1969 from Caltech, and an IISc
Distinguished Alumni Award in 1981. He was elected to the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1970 and served
as its president during 1977-1979. In 1978 he was elected to both the US National Academy of Engineering,
and the Indian National Science Academy. He became a foreign honorary member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1972. India honored him with the Padma Bhushan (1971), Padma
Vibhushan (1981), the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration (1999), acknowledging him as “one of
our foremost scientists, teachers, and national builders ¼ and [who] is deeply concerned with the solution
of national problems through the use of science.”. He received several honorary doctorates, including one
from Cran eld Institute of Technology, UK. Following his death, the satellite launch centre at Sriharikota,
Andhra Pradesh was renamed as the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

Remarks by Hans Liepmann

Here are some views expressed by his mentor Professor Liepmann.[12]

“Satish was immediately accepted and respected by this highly competent and proud group of young
scientists. He showed an unusual maturity in judging both scienti c and human problems, a
characteristic that today is called “leadership quality.””

“Satish could be tough without having to get mad rst—a trait that I envy”

“Many years ago Satish told me that accurate weather prediction could improve India’s economy
decisively. With the ock of satellites he helped organize, Satish did indeed do something about the
weather. Now future geophysical satellites will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center,
named in his honor last September.”

All those who have come in touch with Dhawan have expressed similar views and sentiments.
Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan (former chairman of ISRO, 1994-2003) summed up nicely the human and
humane persona of Dhawan, “a rare human being of his kind – a lovable teacher, an intense researcher, an
innovative technologist, an able institution builder and an excellent academic administrator, all at the same
time but distinctly visible.”[13] His MA in English literature strikingly stands out in his academic record; it
gave him an unusual edge in communicating with the high and mighty and added wit and luster to his
personality that never failed to charm people.

My brief recollections

During my career at the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) at Bangalore (1971-1995), Dhawan was
Chairman, Research Council of NAL (1984–93), I have exchanged perhaps a-dozen sentences with him on
various occasions in informal surroundings but had enough opportunity to listen to him between those
sentences. I rst heard of his academic background as presented here from him in addition to snippets of
his younger days at a dinner party in Bangalore sometime in the 1980s. A few of us had gathered around
him and we heard him in fascination as he recounted those days. We gasped when he mentioned studying
for his MA in English. It was so unexpected! On another occasion I felt that he had some faint idea about
my research work, more speci cally a research paper of mine that Sir James Lighthill, FRS and Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics (1969-1979, succeeding Paul Dirac), had favourably commented on in a letter to
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me in 1991 and which I had shared with some colleagues and friends. My greatest impression about

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