Nilamber Pant is an Indian space scientist, a former member of the ''Space Commission of India'' and a pioneer of satellite based communication and broadcasting in India. He served at the

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Satish Dhawan Space Centre - SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range - SHAR) is a rocket launch centre (spaceport) operated by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. Sriharikota R ...

and the

ISRO Satellite Centre The U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), formerly ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) ( hi, इसरो उपग्रह केंद्र) is an Indian Space Research Organisation centre for the design, development, and construction of Indian satel ...

before becoming the vice chairman of the

Indian Space Research Organization The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...

(ISRO). The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

awarded him the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

in 1984.

Biography

Pant was born in

Almora Almora ( Kumaoni: ''Almāḍ'') is a municipal board and a cantonment town in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Almora district. Almora is located on a ridge at the southern edge of the Kumaon Hills of the ...

, in the Indian state of Uttarakhand on 25 July 1931 and did his schooling and pre-graduate studies at local institutions in Almora. He graduated from

Lucknow University The University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is a public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1920, the University of Lucknow is one of the oldest government owned institutions of higher edu ...

in 1948 and secured his post graduate degree from the same institution in 1952, in Physics with Wireless as a major. Joining the

(ISRO), his first significant task was the establishment of an Experimental Satellite Communication Earth Station (ESCES) at

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

, a first of its kind in India, in 1965 as a member of the task force entrusted with the responsibility. Later, he completed the first commercial earth station as the Chief Systems Engineer at Arvi, a village around 21 km from

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

, in 1971. During the next five years, he was involved with the development and installation of

Satellite Instructional Television Experiment Satellite Instructional Television Experiment or SITE was an experimental satellite communications project launched in India in 1975, designed jointly by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The project made available informatio ...

(SITE) at the

Earth Station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...

s located in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...

. He served as the Director of the Experimental Satellite Communications Earth Station, Ahmedabad and as the Chairman of the Communication Area,

Space Applications Centre The Space Applications Centre (SAC) is an institution of research in Ahmedabad under the aegis of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is one of the major centres of ISRO that is engaged in the research, development and demonstrat ...

, Ahmedabad before being appointed as the Director of the

(SHAR, ISRO) in 1977. It was during his tenure as the director, ISRO that the first four launches of the

SLV-3 The Satellite Launch Vehicle or SLV was a small-lift launch vehicle project started in the early 1970s by the Indian Space Research Organisation to develop the technology needed to launch satellites. SLV was intended to reach a height of and ...

, in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1983 respectively, were executed under the leadership of

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied phy ...

. His next posting was as the director of the

at Bengaluru in 1985 where he oversaw the IRS, SROSS and INSAT-2 projects. He also chaired the INSAT-1 Project Management Board during this period. In 1999, he was inducted into the ''Space Commission of India'' as a member and the next year, he became the vice chairman of the

, a post he held till his superannuation on 31 July 1991. Pant received the ''Shri Hari Om Ashram Prerit Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Research Award'' in 1976 and the

awarded him the civilian honour of

in 1984. The next year, he received the Dr. Biren Roy Space Award from the

Aeronautical Society of India Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) is the principal Society in India serving the professions in areas of aeronautics, aerospace and aviation. Its stated primary purpose is to "advance the sciences, engineering, technology and management of ae ...

and the Aryabhatta Award of the Astronautical Society of India reached him in 1995. At the 92nd

Indian Science Congress Indian Science Congress Association(ISCA) is a premier scientific organisation of India with headquarters at Kolkata, West Bengal. The association started in the year 1914 in Kolkata and it meets annually in the first week of January. It has a ...

held at Ahmedabad in 2005, he was awarded the Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Award. The Indian Space Research Organization awarded him the ''Performance Excellence Award'' in 2006 and followed it up with the ''Lifetime Achievement Award'' in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pant, Nilamber Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering 1931 births People from Almora district Scientists from Uttarakhand Indian Space Research Organisation people University of Lucknow alumni Living people Indian space scientists 20th-century Indian scientists

Biography

See also

References