Conference Inauguration and Inaugural Address - January 22, 2009

Dr. A. R. Upadhya – Director, National Aerospace Laboratories

Speaker Profile

Dr. UpadhayaDr. Upadhya received his B Tech and M E degrees in aeronautical engineering from IIT, Kharagpur and IISc, Bangalore respectively. He obtained his Ph. D from the Cranfield Institute of Technology, Cranfield, UK in 1980 on a Commonwealth Fellowship from the Government of UK. He was a scientist at the National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore from 1974 to 1986. From 1986 to 2004, he was at the Aeronautical Development Agency, Bangalore, initially as Group Director and then as Project Director for Structural Technologies and subsequently as Associate Program Director (LCA Navy). During this period, he was closely associated with India’s prestigious Light Combat Aircraft Program in the technical areas of loads, dynamics, aeroelasticity and structure-control interactions and also as a senior level executive in the management of the programme.

Dr. Upadhya was also the Program Director during 2000-2004, for India’s National Program on Smart Materials, aimed at development of smart sensors, actuators and MEMS based devices and associated technologies of material processing, packaging and applications.

Dr. Upadhya returned to the National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore as its Director in December 2004 and is responsible for management and coordination of its activities involving applied aerospace research, technology development and applications in national programmes, establishment and running of modern facilities for testing and manufacture of aerospace systems & small civil aircraft design and development.

Membership of Professional Bodies / Institutions

  1. Member, AIAA,
  2. Fellow, Aeronautical Society of India
  3. Life Member and past President, Indian Society for Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering
  4. Life Member and President, Institute of Smart Structures and Systems
  5. Member, Semiconductor Society of India.
  6. Life Member, Society for Aerospace Quality and Reliability.
  7. Member, Academic Senate, Visvesvaraya Technical University, Karnataka
  8. Indian Member, World Federation of Engineering Organisations (CSIR Nominee)
  9. Member, Board of Governors, Engineering Council of India
  10. Covenor, Technical Committee, Aeronautical Research and Development Board (AR&DB)
  11. Life Member, Swadeshi Vijnana Aandolana (Karnataka)

Honours and Awards

  1. Distinguished Alumnus Award of Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in the year 2003.
  2. Distinguished Alumnus Award of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in July 2006.
  3. Elected Corresponding Member, Section 4 (Social Sciences) of the International Academy of Astronautics, September 2007
  4. Citation presented by The Institution of Engineers(India), Board of Metallurgical Materials Engineering (M &M E) Division for Meritorious Service to M and M E,11 Jan 2008 at Bangalore on the occasion of their 21st Convention
  5. Visvesvaraya Vijnana Puraskar of Swadeshi Vijnana Andolana, Karnataka and Visvesvaraya Technological University, in September 2008