Twenty-Second British Commonwealth Lecture

Abstract

The Twenty-Second British Commonwealth Lecture, “Aeronautical Research in India”, was given by Dr. S. Dhawan, MA, BSc(Eng), MS, FRAeS, Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, on 3rd November 1966. The Chair was taken by the President, Mr. A. D. Baxter, MEng, FRAeS, and the distinguished audience included His Excellency Dr. J. Mehta, High Commissioner for India.Before the Lecture the President introduced Lord Caldecote, DSC, MA, FRAeS, immediate Past President of the Society of British Aerospace Companies Limited, who presented the four SB AC Scholarship Awards for 1966 to the recipients.Introducing the Lecturer, Mr. Baxter said that the British Commonwealth Lecture had been established immediately after the Second World War to foster interest and understanding in aeronautical developments between Great Britain and her partners in the Commonwealth. He thought that object had been successfully achieved by the efforts of a long and distinguished list of lecturers, both from home and overseas; now they were to add another distinguished name to that list. Dr. Dhawan had taken his first degree in mathematics and physics at Lahore in 1938; in 1941 he obtained his MA from the Punjab University and, from the same university, his BSc in Engineering in 1944. After a period as an Assistant Supervisor with the Hindustan Aircraft Company, he was selected by the Government of India for advanced studies abroad in aeronautics. Dr. Dhawan had gone to the United States where he took a Masters Degree in Aeronautics at the University of Minnesota and a PhD in Aeronautics at the Californian Institute of Technology. Returning to India in 1951, he joined the Department of Aeronautics at the Indian Institute of Science, becoming Assistant Professor in 1952 and Professor and Head of the Department in 1955 and, since 1963 Director of the Institute.