Dr Indira Rajagopal

Dr P Nilakantan
Dr S R Valluri
Professor R Narasimha
Dr K N Raju
Professor Satish Dhawan
Dr R A Mashelkar
Dr PRamamoorthy
Prof U R Rao
Dr B R Somashekar
Mr K Venkatachalam
Dr K S Yajnik
Dr M V V Murthy
Dr A C Raghuram
Dr Indira Rajagopal
Dr M Shivakumara Swamy
Dr S Nagabhushana
Dr J P Pichamuthu
Dr S Srinathkumar
Dr Srinivas Bhogle

It has been a remarkable innings, spanning an incredible 42 years, at CSIR (before joining NAL around 1970, she was with CECRI, Karaikudi for 12 years) and studded with achievements and successes too numerous to enumerate here.

Dr Indira Rajagopal
A tribute which appeared in the Information Pasteboard on the eve of Dr Indira Rajagopal's retirement.

Dr Indira Rajagopal retired this week as Head of NAL's Surface Engineering Unit. It has been a remarkable innings, spanning an incredible 42 years, at CSIR (before joining NAL around 1970, she was with CECRI, Karaikudi for 12 years) and studded with achievements and successes too numerous to enumerate here. It is NAL's good fortune that Dr Indira Rajagopal will continue to be associated with us as a CSIR Emeritus Scientist. In a future issue of the Pasteboard, I hope to carry a detailed appreciation of Dr Indira Rajagopal's work -- in fact, I am hoping that I can persuade Dr S R Rajagopalan to give me his objective assessment of his wife's best contributions to materials science and surface engineering.

This week I would simply like to comment on, and marvel at, the tremendous energy that drives the lady. I have been privileged to have had many long conversations with her (often over an excellent cup of coffee): money or worldly possessions mean practically nothing to her -- but talk to her about solar selective coatings, or polishing mirrors for INSAT satellites or descaling loco engine components and her face lights up! I suspect that Dr Indira Rajagopal's sole raison d'être is the relentless search for technologies which could contribute to the country's wealth. I wish her many more successful years in the pursuit of this noble endeavour.

Srinivas Bhogle