Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, Tamil: அவுல் பகீர் ஜைனுலாப்தீன் அப்துல் கலாம்; born October 15, 1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam^, was the eleventh President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007.[2] During his term as The President, he was popularly known as the People's President[3][4], and a poll conducted by news channel CNN-IBN named him "India's Best President".
Before his term as India's president, he worked as an aeronautical engineer with DRDO and ISRO. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology.[5]. In India he is highly respected as a scientist and as an engineer.
Kalam played a pivotal organisational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.[6] He is a professor at Anna University (Chennai) and adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.
With the death of R. Venkataraman on January 27, 2009, Kalam became the only surviving former President of India.