P. R. Pisharoty
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Pisharoth Rama Pisharoty (10 February 1909 – 24 September 2002) was an Indian physicist and meteorologist, and is considered to be the father of remote sensing in India.
Early life and education
P. R. Pisharoty was born on 10 February 1909 in the town of
Work in Indian remote sensing programme
On returning to India, Pisharoty became the Director of Colaba and Alibag Magnetic Observatories in 1959 and Founder Director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune in 1962. In 1967 he retired as Director of the Institute of Tropical Meteorology and joined the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad as a senior professor at the invitation of Vikram Sarabhai. At this point he was entrusted with the job of introducing remote sensing technology to India. He accepted the job. His pioneering experiment of detection of coconut wilt-root disease using Soviet aircraft and US equipment was considered to be the first success in remote sensing in India.
Positions held
Pisharoty served as the Director, Remote Sensing and Satellite Meteorology, at
Awards
- 1957 Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences
- 1978 Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy
- 1970 Awarded the prestigious Padma Shri national civilian award of the Indian government in recognition of his contributions.
- 1988 First recipient of the Raman Centenary Medal.
- 1989 Awarded the IMO Prize by the WMO.[1]
- 1990 Received the K. R. Ramanathan Medal established by Indian National Science Academy.[2]
Death and legacy
Pisharoty died on the morning of 24 September 2002 at Pune, at the age of 93. The Indian Society of Remote Sensing renamed the Indian National Remote Sensing Award to 'P. R. Pisharoty Memorial Award' in his memory. The GPS Radiosonde of ISRO's VSSC is named after Pisharoty.[3]
References
- ^ "Winners of the IMO Prize". World Meteorological Organization. Archived from the original on 22 November 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
- ^ Indian National Science Academy Archived 2012-09-10 at archive.today
- ^ An Advanced Radiosonde System for Aerospace Applications