Meet Nigar Shaji, Aditya L1 project director from Tamil Nadu

Nigar Shaji, the Project Director of Aditya L1, which soared successfully into the skies on Saturday, is a native of Shengottai, a town bordering Kerala, in Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu.

Shaji, 59, studied at the SRM Government School in Sengottai, which is close to the famous tourist town of Courtallam - known for its waterfalls, and did her B.E. from the Tirunelveli Government Engineering College.

Shaji joins the likes of Mylswamy Annadurai, M Vanitha, and P Veeramuthuvel, the project directors of India’s first, second, and third lunar missions respectively, as the head of the country’s first observatory mission to the Sun, the Aditya L1 project.

Joining ISRO in 1987, Shaji worked in several areas in the space agency, including in communication, satellite, design, and control systems. She was also the Associate Project Director of Resourcesat-2A, the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite for National Resource Monitoring and Management.

The scientist, who has working experience of over 35 years, has authored several papers on image compression and system engineering. She has also visited several space agencies, including NASA and the European Space Agency as part of her assignments.

Standing at the podium of the Mission Control Centre here after the successful launch of Aditya L1, Shaji said it was a “dream come true for the ambitious project.” She also recalled the contributions made by U R Rao to the Aditya L1 mission – it was the former chairman of ISRO who pushed for multiple payloads on the spacecraft - while the initial plan was to carry just one.

S Sheik Saleem, Shaji’s brother, said the family was very proud of his younger sister’s achievements. “We were tense since the morning as we know things could go wrong anytime. But we were relieved when we saw the successful lift-off. It was a proud moment for us to see my sister making a speech from the podium,” Saleem said.

He added that Shaji was a bright student since her school days and emerged as first in plus-two exams in Tenkasi Education District.