The Chief Controller of Aero Programmes, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Prahlada, has taken over as Vice-Chancellor of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), a deemed-to-be university situated at Pune. The DIAT is an autonomous organisation fully funded by the DRDO, Ministry of Defence.
On the basis of accreditation by the All-India Council of Technical Education, Pune University had recognised in 1980 eight courses in M.E. offered by the DIAT. The Institute became a deemed-to-be university in 2000. Its areas of academic studies and research cover aerospace, computer science, mechanical engineering, electronics engineering, applied physics, chemistry, mathematics and material science.
As Project Director for the surface-to-air missile defence system, Akash, Dr. Prahlada provided technological and managerial leadership to about 1,000 engineers/scientists working in various development centres for 20 years. As Director of the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, which is the biggest DRDO laboratory, he provided leadership from 1997 to 2005 to several missile projects, new technologies and world-class test facilities.
He was Programme Director of the India-Russia joint venture project, the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, and contributed to its project formulation, management and flight trials.
Dr. Prahlada graduated in mechanical engineering from Bangalore University and received his Masters in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, with specialisation in rockets and missile systems.
He has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad.
