Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was an Indian aerospace scientist who served as the 11th president of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Oraganisation and Indian Space Research Oraganisation and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile efforts.