APJ Abdul Kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was an Indian aerospace scientist who served as the 11th president of India from 2002 to 2007

He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the DRDO and ISRO and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts

He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology

He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.

Kalam was elected as the 11th president of India in 2002 with the support of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the then-opposition Indian National Congress. Widely referred to as the "People's President

he returned to his civilian life of education, writing and public service after a single term.

He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

After leaving office, Kalam became a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and the Indian Institute of Management Indore; an honorary fellow of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

While delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Kalam collapsed and died from an apparent cardiac arrest on 27 July 2015, aged 83