Hyderabad: Dr Jagannath Nayak has been appointed as the new Director General of Missiles and Strategic Systems (DGMSS) at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), effective from July 1.
He will succeed U Raja Babu.
Dr Nayak currently serves as Director of the Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences (CHESS) in Hyderabad. A distinguished scientist, he comes with over 35 years of experience in defence research and development.
As Director of CHESS, he led the development, field testing and transfer of technology of India’s first Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) system, marking a significant milestone in the country’s futuristic defence capabilities.
He is credited for spearheading the development of indigenous Fibre Optic Gyroscopes (FOG) as Project Director at Research Centre Imarat (RCI) in Hyderabad. This technology is deployed across India’s self-made defence missiles, aircraft and main battle tanks.
Supervised over 10 PhD scholars
He has authored more than 125 research papers published in national and international journals and conference proceedings, and has supervised more than 10 PhD scholars.
He founded the IEEE Photonics Society’s Hyderabad Chapter and served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at IISc Bengaluru and IIT Madras between 2009 and 2014.
He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), the Optical Society of India (OSI) and the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE). He also serves as Vice President of the Optical Society of India and the Sensor Research Society of India, and Secretary of the INAE Hyderabad Chapter.
Dr Nayak has received several prestigious honours, including the Aryabhata Award from the Astronautical Society of India, the National Aeronautical Prize from the Aeronautical Society of India, the DRDO Agni Award for Excellence in Self-Reliance, the Nina Saxena Excellence in Technology Award and the Aeronautical Society of India’s Swarna Jayanti Award.
Dr Nayak completed his Master’s degree and has a PhD in Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
