Tapan Misra becomes Head of ISRO’s SAC, Ahmedabad
Sandeep Banerjee: In a development for which Odisha can take immense pride, scientist Tapan Misra has been appointed Director of The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)’s vital Space Application Center (SAC) at Ahmedabad. Misra hails from Rayagada district where he was born in 1961. He was Deputy Director of the Microwave Remote Sensing Area at ISRO’s Space application Centre in Ahmedabad. He succeeds A S Kiran Kumar who became Chairman of ISRO on Jan 14th.
Boasting of an excellent track record as one of the country’s top scientist, Misra was the leading designer for development of C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar. Under Misra’s leadership, critical technology elements for RISAT were developed in partnership with the Industry.
Misra graduated in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from Jadavpur University, Calcutta in 1984. He got the prestigious J C Bose National Talent Search Scholarship (JBNSTS) in 1981. He began his career at SAC as digital hardware Engineer responsible for the development of Quick Look Display System of X-band side looking Airborne Radar in the year 1984. Misra has done many out-standing work during his career. He is best recognized as the lead designer for the designing and development of C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar of India’s Radar Imaging Satellite-1 (RISAT-1).He developed an important algorithm for real time processing of SAR data during his tenure as Guest Scientist in German Aerospace Agency (DLR) in 1990.
Misra has great contribution in the system design, simulation, integration, checkout and ground calibration for multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer Instrument which was carried on-board India’s OCEANSAT-1 satellite. Following this, he led the team which developed a special airborne radar system called DMSAR (SAR for Disaster Management) during 2005-2006. He also led the development of Scatterometer payload of Oceansat-2, launched in 2009, which provided valuable wind related data to global meteorological community.
Misra was awarded the Hari Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai research Award in 2004 and ISRO Merit award in 2008 for his contribution to the development of SAR technology. He was elected as a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2007. He was also elected as Corresponding Member of International Academy of Astronautics in 2008.
The outstanding scientist has 2 granted patents, 6 pending patents, 5 copyrights and more than 25 papers to his credit. For the ingenious young minds of Odisha who are interested in the world of physical science and astronomy, Tapan Misra is definitely the figure to idolize and to carry the belief that literally ‘sky is the limit’.