Dr. Tessy Thomas

Dr Tessy Thomas is an Indian scientist former Director General of Aeronautical Systems and the former Project Director for Agni-IV missile in the Defence Research and Development Organisation. She is the first-ever female scientist to head a missile project in India.

Dr Thomas was born in April 1963 in a Syro-Malabar family in Alappuzha, Kerala.  She grew up near Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station, Trivandrum which had a tremendous influence on her.   She studied at St. Michael's Higher Secondary School and St. Joseph's College for Women, Alappuzha. In both school and college Tessy was involved in extracurricular activities including political issues. 
She also has an M.Tech in Guided Missile from the Institute of Armament Technology, Pune (now known as the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology). She also pursued an MBA in Operations Management and a Ph.D. in guidance missiles under the Defence Research and Development Organisation. 

Dr Thomas joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation in 1988,  where she worked on the design and development of the new generation ballistic missile, Agni. She was appointed by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam for the Agni Project. In addition, Dr Thomas was the associate project director of the 3,000 km range Agni-III missile project. She was the project director for mission Agni IV which was successfully tested in 2011. Later, She was appointed as the project director of the 5,000 km range Agni-V in 2009, which was successfully tested on 19 April 2012. In 2018, she became the Director-General, of Aeronautical Systems of DRDO and served there till 30 April 2023. She is a fellow at the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Institution of Engineers-India (IEI), and Tata Administrative Service (TAS). 
She received the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for her contribution to making India self-reliant in the field of missile technology. She was the recipient of the Dr Thomas Cangan Leadership Award at the Faculty of Management Studies – Institute of Rural Management, Jaipur (FMS-IRM) in 2018. She was also awarded the Lokmanya Tilak National Award in 2022.
She won the 'Woman Pioneer of the Year' award at ETPrime Women Leadership Awards 2023. * (Collected from the public domain)