Udupi Ramachandra Rao Biography 
Udupi Ramachandra Rao is a space scientist and former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Now he is the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad. In 1976 he received Padma Bhushan from government of India. He was inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington on March 19, 2013, thus becoming the first Indian to be honoured this way.
U. R. Rao was born at Adamaru, Udupi in Karnataka on 10 March 1932. His school education was completed at Adamaru and Udipi. He took BSc from Madras University in the year 1952 and MSc from Banaras Hindu University in 1954. He took PhD from Gujarat University in 1960. Later he worked as Faculty Member at MIT and Assistant Professor at University of Texas at Dallas and finally returned to India in 1966 as a professor at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.
Rao started his career as a cosmic ray scientist, under the Dr Vikram Sarabhai. He was the first scientist to establish the continuous nature of the solar wind and its effect on geomagnetism using Mariner 2 observations. His studies gave significant contributions to solar cosmic ray phenomena and the electromagnetic state of the interplanetary space. He was given the responsibility of establishment of satellite technology in India in 1972. From the first Indian satellite "Aryabhata" in 1975 to 18 satellites later, Rao has provided suitable guidance. Bhaskara, APPLE, Rohini, INSAT-1, INSAT-2, and IRS-1A and IRS-1B remote sensing satellites are among those.
He took the position of chairman of ISRO in the year 1985. He accelerated the development of rocket technology and ASLV rocket was successfully launched in 1992. Operational PSLV launch vehicle, development of the geostationary launch vehicle GSLV and the development of cryogenic technology in 1991 are other major contributions.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 18, 2014
