Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT)

Indian Armament Studies, later renamed as Institute of Armament Technology (now Defence Institute of Advanced Technology - DIAT) is founded by Patrick Blackett (Nobel Laureate-Physics-1948) and Daulat Singh Kothari (Padma Bushan & Padma Vibhushan) on Singh Kothari (Padma Bushan & Padma Vibhushan) on 1952.[4] Patrick Blackett was a Nobel Laureate[5] (Physics-1948) and a Military Expert, Royal British Navy[6] was invited by Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India to 'Indianize the military' during 1950s. Blackett was awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society in 1940 and the American Medal for Merit in 1946. Patrick Blackett was Head of the Physics Department of Imperial College London . The current Physics department building of Imperial College is named the Blackett Laboratory. Daulat Singh Kothari (Padma Bushan & Padma Vibhushan), Scientific Advisor to Ministry of Defence, Government of India is an Outstanding Physicist, Educationalist and considered as the Architect of Defence Science in India. Founder of most of the DRDO labs in India i.e. Naval Dockyard Laboratory (later renamed Naval Chemical and Metallurgical Laboratory), Mumbai, Indian Naval Physical Laboratory, Kochi, Centre for Fire Research, Delhi, Solid State Physics Laboratory, Delhi, Defence Food Research Laboratory, Mysore, Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, Chennai, Directorate of Psychological Research, New Delhi, Defence Electronics Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, Scientific Evaluation Group, Delhi, Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory, Chandigarh. D S Kothari Played a crucial role in setting up of UGC and NCERT. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in his recent book, Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India. wrote, “Dr. D.S. Kothari, a professor at Delhi University, was an outstanding physicist and astrophysicist. He is well-known for ionisation of matter by pressure in cold compact object like planets. This theory is complementary to the epoch making theory of thermal ionisation of his guru, Maghnad Saha. Dr. D.S. Kothari set a scientific tradition in Indian defence tasks when he became Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister in 1948. The first thing he did was to establish the Defence Science Centre to do research in electronic materials, nuclear medicine and ballistic science. Dr. D S Kothari and Dr. P Blackett worked together in Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University under the guidance of Ernest Rutherford, the Father of Nuclear physics. In 1967, Indian Armament Studies was renamed as "Institute of Armament Technology" (IAT), which moved to its present location at Girinagar, Pune. From the relatively narrow scope of Armament Studies alone in the Fifties, the role of the institute was considerably enlarged by the Defence R&D Council in 1964 and further in 1981. On the basis of accreditation by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), Pune University recognised eight courses for the award of ME degree in 1980. In the year 2000, the institute acquired the status of a Deemed University. IAT has been renamed as DIAT w.e.f. 1 April 2006. DIAT ranked 35th position (under University category) in the Nation's first National Institutional Ranking Framework introduced by the Ministry of Education during 2016. DIAT is supported by 52 laboratories of Defence Research & Development Organization, Defence PSUs and Indian Armed Forces to conduct collaborative research works and to validate, assess various innovative technologies developed by its students and researchers. ...view more