From marvels to missiles: Dr. Tessy Thomas’ extraordinary story

When stereotypes ruled society women, women were to do household chores, and only some women were encouraged to stand out and pave their way. At the same time, most Christian families in Kerala encouraged their studious daughters to pursue a career in medicine, teaching, or even IAS, but not this avid dreamer.

She was handpicked by Dr. A.P.J Kalam to be known as India’s first woman scientist to head a missile project. She is none other than Dr. Tessy Thomas, who earned the title of ‘Missile Woman of India.’ Let us have a look into her transformative journey from being an aspirant to a distinguished Director General of Aeronautical Systems (DRDO) scientist.

Back to her roots

Born in a Syrian-Malabar Catholic family in Alappuzha, Kerala, to an accountant with a private firm, although there are no confirmed sources, Tessy is named after Mother Teresa. Her mother was a qualified teacher until Tessy’s father suffered a stroke, leaving him paralyzed, when she was just 13. This led her mother to retire and become a homemaker to look after the family of six, including four more daughters and one son.

Her mother was the sole person handling the house; she inspired Tessy to be independent in all aspects. Recalling her past, Tessy mentioned how her parents ensured their children received proper education and encouraged all to pursue careers of their own likes and interests so that they could lead their lives in their pursuits. Two of her siblings are qualified engineers, while another pursued an MBA. Today, she is married to Commander Saroj Kumar in the Indian Navy, and they share a son named Tejas.

Impressive history of qualifications

Tessy has a wide array of educational backgrounds, with her alma mater being from four institutions altogether.

Tessy spent most of her school years mainly showing interest in St. Michael’s Higher Secondary School and St. Joseph’s College for Women, Alappuzha. Being a studious and sincere student, she had a natural flair for science, scoring above 95% and a whole percentile in mathematics during her pre-degree college years.

Ms. Thomas admits her obsession with rockets began when she grew up near Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station, Trivandrum. Additionally, Tessy and her friends used to gape at airplanes flying to and from Thiruvananthapuram airport and smile in wonder just thinking about watching an aircraft fly.

After high school, she went on to pursue BTech in Electrical Engineering from Trichur Engineering College in Calicut (Kerala), which has subjects including radar systems in military applications. But it was no cakewalk to foot the bill of such a reputed college. It is believed Tessy had to take out an education loan of ₹100 monthly from the State Bank of India. Furthermore, she even received a scholarship covering her complete tuition fees due to her topping the merit list, which even encouraged her to live in a hostel.

After that, in 1986, she studied M. Tech by successfully passing the entrance exam of ‘The Defense Institute of Advanced Technology‘ in Pune. Interestingly, she was one of the three students to pass this exam and the first woman to pass it.

If you think her qualifications end here, be ready to drop your jaw further. She completed a Ph.D. in Missile Guidance from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNU), Hyderabad, in 2014 and an MBA in Operations Management from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) New Delhi in 2007.

Skyrocketing her career

Getting in

After her Masters, Tessy joined as a faculty member in Guided Missiles at the Institute of Armament Technology in Pune in 1986. Fast forward two years, she joined DRDO, Hyderabad, where she worked under Dr. APJ. Abdul Kalam in a directorial position, who was quite impressed with her credentials. This led her to join his team of 50 scientists.

DRDO is the R&D wing of the Ministry of Defense, Government of India. Its end goal is to empower India with cutting-edge defense technologies, and its mission is to achieve self-reliance on critical defense technologies and systems.

Mastermind behind Agni

She was appointed to the design and development department of the Agni ballistic missile. She played an important part in the development of the Agni missile, a long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile. She is one of the women working on strategic nuclear ballistic missiles in the world, and this was one of her first steps into the missile world.

Tessy admires Dr. Kalam and having the privilege to work under him was a stroke of luck. She still remembers his words as he quoted, “Missiles are not weapons of destruction, missiles are weapons of peace. Strength represents strength.”

Strength represents strength

Her turning point was designing and curating the guidance schemed distanced missile systems used in all Agni missiles, which she used to work on for almost 12 hours. Her responsibility was to handle where the missiles should be able to handle beyond the atmosphere and generate heat beyond 3000 degrees, which was a challenge that no country was able to complete, but Tessy took the challenge and quite swiftly proved to spearhead the team to develop and build an energy management guidance scheme for the first time.

To aiming high

In her 32 years with Agni missiles, she has contributed heavily to various aspects, including guidance, mission design, control, etc. Additionally, Tessy Thomas earned the position of Associate Project Director of the 3,000 km range Agni-III missile project and the project director of Mission Agni IV, which was successfully tried and tested in 2011.

Moreover, in 2008, she was appointed Project Director for the 5,000 km (about the width of the United States) range Agni-V. Agni-V was successfully tested on 19 April 2012, which helped her become the next Director General of Aeronautical Systems of DRDO in 2018. Today, she is one of the biggest experts on ballistic missiles.

Roles and responsibilities

Her missile journey never stopped, as Dr. Tessy Thomas is now busy making the Navy version of the Agni-5 missile. With this approach, even the enemy can be easily defeated via water. She also revealed the missile’s making at the International Seminar of the Association for Machine and Mechanism and the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science at IIT Mandi.

In today’s times, Tessy is responsible for almost all aeronautical systems, including manned and unmanned vehicles, which are significantly lighter than airborne systems, aero engines, advanced warning systems, and cruise missiles. She even went on to state that India as a nation can only rely on itself for 70%, and the rest leaves it helpless. One area that requires major improvement is electronic fabrication.

Furthermore, she is a fellow at various institutions, such as the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), the Institution of Engineers-India (IEI), and the Tata Administrative Service (TAS).

A beacon of inspiration

Tessy stands as a beacon of inspiration and determination for the whole nation, but a lot for women. When she joined DRDO initially, only a handful of women were working in the entire organization; her excellence in person has motivated and encouraged me to defy stereotypes with every development and design she has done in her field.

Awards and recognition

Tessy Thomas has received the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for her contribution to making India self-reliant in missile technology. She also received the Dr Thomas Cangan Leadership Award at the Institute of Rural Management, Jaipur (FMS-IRM) in 2018. Recently, she was also awarded the Lokmanya Tilak National Award in 2022.

Rekha Menon, the former chairperson of Accenture India, handed Dr Thomas the award for ‘Woman Pioneer of the Year‘ at the ETPrime Women Leadership Awards 2023 in Mumbai.

Key takeaway

Being a pioneer of change in the field of rocketry is nothing short of a massive change, and to be able to contribute to such high aspects is an accomplishment in itself. Tessy also states that science has no gender; it is all about the knowledge and expertise that matters at the end of the day. Women can excel and succeed in any field if they are willing to learn.