Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (/ ˈʌbdʊl kəˈlɑːm / ⓘ UB-duul kə-LAHM; 15 October – 27 July ) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the president of India from to Born and raised in a Muslim family in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Kalam studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science.