Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (/ˈæbdəl kəˈlɑːm/ (listen); 15 October 1931 – 27 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and politician 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