By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala Education Minister M.A. Baby is hoping that President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will join the faculty of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) that is to come up here.
The Vikarm Sarabahi Space Centre (VSSC), a unit of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is setting up IIST. Kalam worked at VSSC since its inception in the 1960s till 1982.
Baby said Saturday that he hopes Kalam might become a faculty member at IIST after his tenure as the president ends in July.
"We will be glad if this is to happen and since the proposed institute will be a deemed university. IIST would have to make the formal invitation and then the state government would do the needful," Baby told IANS.
ISRO is trying to ensure that IIST, for which it has proposed a specialized space research engineering college, is opened this academic year.
"We are working to see that students for this new institution are selected from the common engineering entrance examination," said Baby.
IIST will function from the VSSC campus here till a separate campus is built. The permanent campus of IIST, to be built at a cost of Rs.1.2 billion, will come up on a 100-acre area on the outskirts of the state capital.