Page 61 - PROF-DHAWAN-COMPILED

Remembering Prof. Satish Dhawan: My

Reverential Role Model

Published on September 25, 2019 (Linkedin)

Radhakrishnan Koppillil

Chairman, BOG- IIT Kanpur & Standing Committee of IIT Council; Former Chairman, Space
Commission/ISRO & Secretary DOS

Prof. Satish Dhawan (born this day in 1920) had an unusual combination of academic
credentials: B.A (Maths & Physics); BE (Mech Engg); MA (English Literature); MS
(Aero); and a double PhD (Maths and Aerospace engineering) in 1951 from Caltech,
USA under thesis supervisor Prof. Hans V. Liepmann (a student of Theodore von
Karman, the founder of Jet Propulsion Laboratory). It is amazing to read what

Liepmann penned in 2002 ‘Remembering Satish Dhawan’($) - “He showed unusual
maturity in judging both scientific and human problems, a characteristic we call
Leadership quality”.

Prof. Dhawan chose Bengaluru as his ‘Karma Bhoomi’ at IISc from the age of 31. The

Head of Aeronautical Department at the age of 35, Prof. Dhawan was a passionate
teacher, a demanding research guide and a pragmatic engineer, renowned as the
father of Experimental Fluid Dynamics Research in India. An academic leader par-
excellence, he rose to become Director of IISc at the age of 42 with a glorious innings
of two decades and left behind a great legacy.

Prof. Dhawan was a man of conviction and he had the courage and uncanny ability
to say ‘no’ to even coveted national roles which chased him. Nevertheless, he
accepted the invitation of Dr. Vikram A. Sarabhai to join the Atomic Energy
Commission that was overseeing the Space programme in the 1960’s.