Nambi Narayanan
Nambi Naryanan is an Indian aerospace scientist who worked in Indian space research Organzisation.He was person behind Vikas engine and he worked in Cryogenics.
Early Life :
He was born on 12 Dec 1941,in Nagercoil,Kanyakumari.in a Tamil-Hindu family .
He completed his schoolin in Higher secondary school,Nagercoil and bachelors of Technology in Mechnacial Enginerring from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. Narayanan lost his father while pursuing his degree in Madurai. He had two sisters. As soon as his father died his mother fell sick. Nambi married Meena Nambi and has two children. Their son, Shankar Nambi, is a businessman. Their daughter Geetha Arunan is a Montessori school teacher in Bangaloreand is married to Subbiah Arunan, an ISRO scientist, director of the Mars Orbiter Mission and Padma Shri awardee.
Career :
He started his career in 1960 at ISRO as a technical assistant at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. He earned a NASA fellowship and was accepted into Princeton University in 1969.
He completed his master’s program there in chemical rocket propulsion under professor Luigi Crocco.
He returned to India with expertise in liquid propulsion at a time when Indian rocketry was still solely dependent on solid propellants.
Narayanan led the team of fifty-two engineers who worked on technology acquisition from French. Other two teams worked on indigenizing the hardware in India and establishing the development facilities in Mahendragiri. The first engine, named Vikas, was tested successfully in 1985.
On 26 January 2019, he was conferred with the Padma Bhushan award by the Government of India for developing the Vikas rocket engine.
Awards :
He was awarded Padma Bhushan ,indian highest third civilian award .
Books :
1.Ormakalude Bhramanapadham: An Autobiography by Nambi Narayanan,
2.Ready To Fire: How India and I Survived the ISRO Spy Case by Nambi Narayanan.
Films
In December 2012, he acted as a professor in a documentary, Mizhineerkayal, about the Alleppey-Kuttanad backwaters.
In July 2022, a biographical film was made titled Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, written, directed by R. Madhavan, who also played the titular role of Narayanan
