New Delhi: M Natarajan, scientific adviser to the defence minister, and secretary, defence (research and development), will be the recipient of the prestigious CV Raman Birth Centenary Award and a gold medal for outstanding achievements in the field of defence research and development and strategic systems.

The award will be conferred on him by the prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on 3 January during the inaugural function of the annual session of the 95th Indian Science Congress being held at the Andhra University campus in Visakhapatnam.

Natarajan did his BTech in mechanical engineering from IIT Chennai and MTech in mechanical engineering, with specialisation in engineering design, from IIT Mumbai. He also holds an MSc in Military Vehicles Technology from the RMCS, UK.

He joined the DRDO in 1970.

Natarajan has worked for over 30 years on several important project assignments relating to the design and development of tracked vehicles. He has been associated with MBT-Arjun programme since its inception. He took over the overall responsibility of development of the MBT Arjun in the capacity of programme director in 1987.

He assumed charge as director of the CVRDE on December 1, 1989.

He was given the Best Scientist Award for the year 1994 for his personal contributions to the success of MBT Arjun. His laboratory was selected as the Best Systems Engineering Laboratory for the year 1995, for which it was given the Rolling Silicon Trophy.

He was also awarded the National Design Award in 1996 by the Institution of Engineers (India) for professional excellence. He was made Distinguished Scientist in the DRDO in 1999.

In his capacity as chief controller, R&D, (ACE) at DRDO HQ looking after armaments, combat vehicles and engineering equipment, he has ensured the acceptance by the Army of the ARDE developed Pinaka Multi-Barrelled Rocket Launching System through exhaustive field tests.

He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering since December 2001.

He was awarded the Padam Shri in 2003 for his contributions to the design and development of combat vehicles.

He was awarded Technology Leadership Award for 2003 by DRDO for his contributions to the design and development of combat vehicles and mechanical systems for the LCA.

He has been a distinguished alumnus of IIT Chennai since December 2003.