Sonar scientist K. Ajith Kumar has taken over as Director of the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), the only DRDO Laboratory in Kerala.
He was serving as Director, Science and Technology, before this.
Dr. Kumar joined NPOL in 1987 and has held various positions, including that of Project Manager, Project Director, and Associate Director, towards the design of sonar systems / subsystems for surface, subsurface and Airborne ASW applications. As the Project Director of MAAREECH, the first indigenous towed array-based torpedo defence system, he played a stellar role in developing the system in collaboration with R&D institutes, academia and industrial partners, and was instrumental in getting the first indigenous towed array-based sonar inducted into the Indian Navy in multiple numbers.
Dr. Kumar graduated in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, and took his MTech in Engineering Mechanics from IIT Madras and PhD in Technology Management.
He is also a member of the Board of Directors, Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KSEDC), Thiruvananthapuram, and Technology Director of Keltron Components, Kerala.
