Dr. Samir V. Kamat: Things One Should Know
On Thursday, Dr. Samir V. Kamat assumed the position of Secretary of the Department of Defence Research and Development and Chairman of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). His predecessor, G Satheesh Reddy, has been appointed as the scientific adviser to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Below are some facts about Dr. Kamat that one should know about.
Dr. Samir V. Kamat, a distinguished scientist, had previously assumed charge as Director General Naval Systems & Materials (NS & M) at DRDO in 2017.
He has obtained B. Tech. (Hons) in Metallurgical Engineering in 1985 from IIT Kharagpur. In 1988, he completed his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University, USA. He has specialised in the area of mechanical behaviour of materials.
He joined DRDO at DMRL, Hyderabad, as Scientist ‘C’ in 1989. He was then elevated to the post of OS/Sc ‘H’ in October 2013. Eventually, he became the Director of the lab on 17 August, 2015.
Dr. Kamat received the Indranil Medal by the Mining, Geological and Metallurgical Institute of India in 1986. Eventually, in 1998, he was awarded with the DRDO Young Scientist Award. In 2006, he received the Binani Gold Medal (jointly) of the Indian Institute of Metals in 2006, and in 2008, he received the National Metallurgists’ Day Metallurgist of the Year Award by the Ministry of Steel. Later on, he got the National Science Day Oration Silicon Medal in 2009, and in 2012, he received the DRDO Scientist of the Year award. Finally, in 2018, he received the IIT Kharagpur Distinguished Alumni Award.
Dr. Kamat has made impactful contributions in the field of microstructure-mechanical property correlations in advanced materials such as particulate reinforced metal matrix composites, ceramic matrix composites, aluminum-lithium alloys, etc. over the last 25 years. Additionally, he has been instrumental in the setting up of state-of-the-art experimental facilities and has expertise in characterisation of the mechanical behaviour of materials in small volumes.
Dr. Kamat has also made contributions to the development of Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) Technology in DMRL, in recent times, which is also being supplied to various sister DRDO labs. He had also played an important role in the initiation of an MoU between DMRL, BARC, IREL, and ARCI for the launch of a Mineral-to-Magnet programme to make India self-reliant in the REPM technology.
