Nigar Shaji, a 59-year-old woman, holds the position of Program Director at ISRO and serves as the Project Director of the Aditya L1 mission. She is a senior scientist at the UR Rao Satellite Centre, which is the research and development center of ISRO located in Bengaluru.
Aditya is a sophisticated scientific satellite,” Ms. Nigar has dedicated nine years of tireless work to Aditya L1 development. She has collaborated with numerous scientists at ISRO during this process. She has also played a significant role in contributing to the design of India’s interplanetary, communication, and remote-sensing satellites.
Nigar Shaji began her journey with ISRO as a scientist at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in 1987. Later she transferred to the UR Rao Satellite Centre, a research and development center of ISRO in Bengaluru. Currently, she carries the additional responsibility as the study director for the Venus mission and the EXO world mission, focusing on the study of planets beyond our solar system.
Aditya L1 has successfully reached its destination, the halo orbit around Lagrange Point 1 (L1). The probe is set to remain in this halo orbit for 5 years, dedicated to observing the sun.
Read more Aditya L1: India’s 1st mission to Sun
While the Aditya L1 mission is not reliant on a single individual, it stands as a collective effort of all the scientists at ISRO, guided by the visionary leadership of S. Somnath, the Chairman of ISRO.
You can read What Is The Lagrange Point L1, Where Aditya L1 Has Been Positioned?
All About Nigar Shaji
Nigar Shaji, born in 1964 into a Tamil Muslim family, grew up in the rural town of Sengottai in the Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu. Her father, Sheikh Meeran, a mathematics graduate turned farmer by choice, and her mother, Sythoon Beevi, a homemaker, provided the foundation for her upbringing.
In her early years, Ms. Nigar attended a government school for her education. Despite her family’s aspiration for her to become a doctor, she chose a different path, pursuing her engineering degree in electronics and communications at the Government College of Engineering, Tirunelveli, affiliated with Madurai Kamaraj University. Later, she pursued her master’s in electronics at the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.
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