Before his term as India's president, he worked as an aeronautical engineer with DRDO and ISRO. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology.[4] Kalam played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.[5]
He is currently the a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad,chancellor of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram, a professor at Anna University (Chennai), a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Indore, and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.
In May 2011, Dr. Kalam launched his mission for the youth of the nation called the What Can I Give Movement.[6] Dr. Kalam better known as a scientist, also has special interest in the field of arts like writingTamil poems, and also playing the music instrument Veena.[7]
Abdul Kalam was born in Rameshwaram, presently Tamil Nadu, in India in 1931. He spent most of his childhood in financial problems and started working at an early age to supplement his family's income.
His awards: 1997 | Bharat Ratna | Government of India | 1990 | Padma Vibhushan | Government of India | 1981 | Padma Bhushan | Government of India |
Kalam's writings * Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam by A. P. J Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari; by K. Bhushan, G. Katyal; A. P. J. Pub. Corp, 2002. *