Roddam Narasimha

Roddam Narasimha FRS (20 July 193314 December 2020) was an Indian aerospace scientist and fluid dynamicist. He was a professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science (1962–1999), director of the National Aerospace Laboratories (1984–1993) and the chairman of the Engineering Mechanics Unit at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR, 2000–2014). He was the DST Year-of-Science Chair Professor at JNCASR and concurrently held the Pratt & Whitney Chair in Science and Engineering at the University of Hyderabad. Narasimha was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, in 2013 for his contributions to advance India's aerospace technology.

Early life Narasimha was born on 20 July 1933. He was born in a Kannada family tracing its origins to Roddam, a village in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. His father, R.L. Narasimhaiah, was a professor of physics in Bangalore's Central College, and was also a Kannada language science writer with a focus on physics and astronomy.

Narasimha completed his schooling at Acharya Pathasala in the Gandhi Bazaar neighbourhood of Bangalore. During this time he worked with Satish Dhawan, who later chaired the Indian Space Research Organisation. He then went to the United States to complete his PhD in 1961 under Hans Liepmann at the California Institute of Technology.

Career Narasimha started his research career at Caltech, working on the problem of jet engine noise reduction. After the launch of the Russian Sputnik and the resulting interest in space programs, he shifted focus to rarefied gas and fluid dynamics, working with Hans W. Liepmann. He continued this research at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he went on to study aerodynamics and supersonic flows toward better understanding of the structure of shockwaves. During this time, he worked on one of the space agency's first computers.

He was the ISRO K. R. Ramanathan distinguished professor at the Indian Institute of Science (1994–1999), Director of the National Aerospace Laboratories (1984–1993), Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (1997–2004) and the chairman of the Engineering Mechanics Unit at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore (2000–2014). He was the DST Year-of-Science Chair Professor at JNCASR and also held the Pratt & Whitney Chair in Science and Engineering at the University of Hyderabad. He was also a visiting member of the faculty at international universities including the University of Brussels, Caltech, University of Cambridge, Langley Research Center, University of Strathclyde and University of Adelaide. His efforts lead to first parallel computer in India and development of a code for weather prediction of tropical regions. He was also a contributing member to the team that designed the light combat aircraft. non-linear vibration of an elastic string, equilibrium and relaxation in turbulent wakes, relaminarization, hydrodynamic instability, wall jets and the study of clouds as volumetrically heated jets. At the Engineering Mechanics Unit of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Narasimha continued his research on fluid dynamics of clouds via laboratory experiments as well as numerical simulations. He also studied gas turbine blades, turbulent free shear layers and proposed a novel wing design for turboprop aircraft.

He was the longest-serving member of the Indian Space Commission, a policy-making body for space exploration in India.

Honours The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presenting the Padma Vibhushan Award to Prof. Roddam Narasimha, at an Investiture Ceremony-II, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on 20 April 2013 Narasimha was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and also of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was a distinguished alumnus of Caltech and the IISc. He was also a foreign associate of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

Some of his honours and awards include:

1975SS Bhatnagar Prize 1990Gujarmal Modi Award 2009Lifetime Achievement Award, Science and Technology Congress, Gulbarga University 2013Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award 2019Lifetime Achievement Award for Mentoring in Science, Nature Magazine

He was the author of more than 200 research publications and fifteen books.

Personal life Narasimha died on 14 December 2020, from brain haemorrhage at the MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital in Bangalore. He was 87 and was survived by his wife and daughter.

Books