The Other Side of Science

About the Author

Born in 1928 at Jamshedpur, Prof. K.A.V. Pandalai obtained his Masters in Aeronautical Engineering (1950) and Doctors in Aero Engineering (1955) from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, new York, USA. During his tenure at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, Prof. Pandalai held many positions, including that of director of the Institute. He has over 44 years of research and teaching experience in aircraft structure mechanics, composites, classical aerodynamics and so on. He has taught at many educational institutions in India and abroad which include Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Stanford university, California George Washington university at Washington, USA. He has guided many M.Tech/MS and PhD students and has about 100 research papers to his credit. Prof. Pandalai was awarded the CSIR Silver Jubilee Award (1971) of Rs.6.25 lakh for use as seed money to set up FRP Research Centre at IIT, Madras, of which he functioned as first Director. He is also the recipient of senior Grade Foreign Fellowship of the National Science Foundation of the USA and NRDC of India awards. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Aeronautical society of India. He was a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Acoustical Society of America. Even after his retirement in 1988, Prof. Pandalai is actively involved in the field of aeronautics and composites and on various issues of science and technology and their impact on society.