Dr. S Unnikrishnan Nair, Director, VSSC, is a Distinguished Scientist took charge as Director, IIST on 20 September 2022. He took over as the first Director of Human Space Flight Centre, Bangalore in January 2019. He has BTech in Mechanical Engineering from Kerala University, ME in Aerospace engineering from IISc, Bangalore and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from IIT(M), Chennai. He started his career in Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Trivandrum in the year 1985. During his tenure at VSSC, he has made significant contributions in launch vehicle mechanisms, acoustic protection systems and payload fairing areas.

He was the Member-Secretary of the Study team for Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE) and Deputy Project Director of SRE for Deceleration and Recovery systems. He was associated with the development of recovery systems for SRE and involved in the recovery of SRE capsule from sea. He was associated with Human Spaceflight Programme since its inception as the Project Director for technology development activities. He was the Payload Director for CARE [Crew module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment], where a prototype of Crew Module was flown successfully on Dec 18, 2014 in LVM3X vehicle. He served as Deputy Director, Structures Entity of VSSC till January 2017 concurrently with human space flight technology development. He led the team for the technology development of Crew Escape System and was its Mission Director for the Pad Abort Test held on 5 July 2018. Prior to the formation of HSFC, he was serving as Programme Director of Advanced Space Transportation System leading all advanced projects like Human Spaceflight, Air Breathing Propulsion and Reusable Launch Vehicle Development.

He has received ISRO team excellence award for his contributions to SRE, ISRO excellence award as team leader for CARE in 2014 and ISRO Individual Merit award for the year 2014 for his contributions towards technology development for manned space mission. He is a member of many professional bodies viz. Fellow of Institution of engineers, life member of Aeronautical society of India, Systems society of India, Acoustical society of India, Astronautical society of India etc. Previously, he has served as the president of Indian National Society for Aerospace and Related Mechanism (INSARM), Trivandrum chapter. He has authored several papers including 12 for international journals/conferences. He is an ardent nature lover and works for its preservation. He has also published a few short stories in leading Malayalam magazines.

Dr. D Sam Dayala Dev is a Distinguished Scientist and is the Director of ISRO Inertial Systems Unit, ISRO since July 1, 2017. He has also taken charge as Director of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology on January 20, 2022.

Prior to taking over as Director, IISU, he was the Associate Director of IISU and Deputy Director of Advanced Inertial Systems Area which is responsible for the design, development and production of advanced inertial sensors such as ISRO ring Laser Gyro (ILG), Ceramic Servo accelerometer (CSA), Advanced Inertial Navigation Systems (AINS) for LV MK3 and Precision Scan mechanisms for Spacecraft payloads. He has more than 30 years of experience in the design, analysis and simulation of inertial sensors, actuators, systems and mechanisms. He has specialized in Rotor dynamics of turbo rotors and momentum wheels, passive vibration control of precision rotors, harnessing micro-vibrations for inertial sensors and actuators. Under his leadership IISU has developed and successfully operating in space Magnetic levitated Reaction wheels and high dynamic capable Control Moment Gyroscopes for agile Spacecrafts such as Cartosat 3. Currently leading teams in developing autonomous Navigating systems with ultra-stable inertial sensors such as Hemispherical Resonator Gyro (HRG) for long duration missions of ISRO and vision based navigation system.

Synergising the multi domain expertise and knowledge base of IISU teams, he has initiated AI and ML enhanced Space Robotics activity. The Smart Space Robot (SSR), a technology demonstrator for space debris management and Half-humanoid for first unmanned Gaganyaan mission as an astronaut assistant are being developed under his active involvement and leadership.

Dr. D Sam Dayala Dev had graduated in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering Guindy, Chennai, did his masters from IIT, MADRAS and doctorate from IIT, Guwahati in the area of non-contract nanofinishing with plasma. He has been deputed as mechanical expert for design review in other Space organisations like CNES.

Dr. Sam Dayala Dev is recipient of ISRO Performance Excellence award, ISRO Merit award and few ISRO Team leader and team excellent awards, ISRO-ASI award for performance excellence in Rocket and related Technologies (Rocketry). He is a Fellow of Aeronautical Society of India. He has to his credit various publications in National and International journals and book chapters on advanced manufacturing methods and precision engineering and holds many patents as first inventor.

He is a strong proponent of industrialisation of inertial sensors production in India and has adopted aggressive initiatives to indigenous electronic components involving Indian Academia and Industries.

He is a nature lover and his hobbies are trekking and nature camping.

Sri. S. Somanath has taken charge as the Director of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology from July 2021. He is the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) since January 2018. He was the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) since July 2015. Till June 2015, he was the Associate Director (Projects) of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and also the Project Director of GSLV Mk-III Launch vehicle. Under his leadership as the Project Director, the first Experimental flight of LVM3-X/CARE mission was successfully accomplished on 18th December, 2014.

He joined ISRO in 1985 and was a team leader for Integration of PSLV during its early development phase and during the first flight of PSLV and the successful second flight PSLV-D2. As Project Manager he handled areas of mechanisms, pyro-technique systems and satellite launch service management. He conceived and executed the first time launches of commercial mini satellites and developed small satellite mounting and separation systems which have successfully deployed many commercial satellites.

He joined GSLV MkIII Project during 2003 and was the Deputy Project Director responsible for Ooverall design of the vehicle, Mission design, Structural design and Integration. He has been the Deputy Director of the ‘Structures’ Entity in VSSC and also the Deputy Director of ‘Propulsion and Space Ordinance Entity’ in VSSC till November, 2014. Shri Somanath is an expert in the area of system engineering of Launch vehicles. He made contributions in PSLV and GSLV MkIII in their overall architecture, propulsion systems, structural and structural dynamics, separation systems, vehicle integration and integration procedures development.

As Director, LPSC he led the team to successfully complete the development of 20 ton thrust C25 cryogenic engine and stage and realised the flight stage for the successful GSLV Mk-III-D1 mission. Impetus given for development of 200 ton Semicryo engine for future Launch vehicles, qualification of throttleable engines for Vikram lander of Chanradrayaan-2 and successful fight test of electric propulsion in GSAT-9 and realisation of 300 mN high thrust electric propulsion thrusters are his major achievements in LPSC.

As Director, VSSC he mentored the team to develop the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) with innovations for cost reduction and production easiness, Human rated Launch Vehicle version of GSLV MkIII, Crew Escape System (CES) and Test Vehicle for Gaganyaan. Some of the significant tests accomplished are the Pad Abort Test (PAT-01) for Gaganyaan, the successful flight test of ATVP with TMA release. The successful first operational mission GSLV MkIII-M1 for Chandrayaan-2 with payload enhancement was a significant event. Nine operational missions of PSLV-C40 to C48 (50th PSLV Mission) and GSLV-F09 were successful in this time frame. Critical development tests of RLV-LEX mission have been completed. He has initiated various new R&D developments as well as facility upgradation initiatives in VSSC which include 2 petaflop computation facility, Trisonic wind tunnel, pyro production augmentation facilities, industry operated production hubs for critical systems in many areas.

Shri Somanath took his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala University with a Second Rank and Masters in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore with specialization in Structures, Dynamics and Control with Gold Medal.

He received the ‘Merit Award’, ‘Performance Excellence award’ and Outstanding Achievement award” from ISRO and a ‘Team excellence award’ for GSLV Mk-III development. He received, the “Janasewa Award 2018” instituted by Sivaparvathy Cultural Society, “Marthoma Educational Technical Training & Research Centre Award-2018” instituted by Marthoma college of Science & Technology, “Lifetime achievement Award instituted by TKM College Trust, Kollam and “Platinum Jubilee Award” from Aerospace Department of IISc Bangalore. He is the recipient of the ‘Space Gold Medal’ from Astronautical Society of India. He is the recipient of the “National Aeronautics Prize” by The Aeronautical Society of India for the year 2018. He was awarded Doctor of Philosophy, Honoris Causa by Sathyabama Institute of Science & Technology, Chennai.

He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Fellow of Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), Astronautical Society of India (ASI) and a Member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He is the Vice President of International Astronautical Federation (IAF) in charge of the technical activities. Shri Somanath has widely travelled as delegate and representative of India in UN-COPOUS at Vienna, many space agencies and establishments across the world and International Astronautical Federation (IAF)’s International Programs in various countries.

He has published papers in journals & seminars in the area of structural dynamics and control, dynamic analysis of separation mechanisms, vibration & acoustic testing, launch vehicle design and launch services management.

Dr. Dadhwal obtained his Postgraduate Degree and PhD from Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Plant Physiology. Prior to joining IIST, he was the Director (2011-16) and Associate Director (2010-11) of National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), a major Centre of ISRO and had been the Dean of Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun (2004-2010) and concurrently Director - in - Charge of UN Centre for Space Science and Technology in Asia and the Pacific (2006, 2009-10).

His major achievements are in the area of earth observation applications including developing techniques for crop forecasting using earth observations and while at NRSC realisation of National Geospatial Portal BHUVAN, National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM), National Information System for Climate and Environmental Studies (NICES), Space-based Inputs for Sustainable Development & Planning (SISDP), Water Resource Information System (WRIS), Disaster Management Support Program, etc and in satellite data, acquisition and processing including realization of IMGEOS and ground station at Antarctica.

While at IIRS, he had been responsible for strengthening field based and quantitative application of remote sensing and EDUSAT based certificate program in field of remote sensing. His scientific contributions include as Project Director, National Carbon Project (NCP, 2007-2016) in biogeochemical cycle of Carbon for India and in as diverse EO application areas as agriculture, crop simulation models, forestry, geo-hazards, geo-informatics, hydrology, land cover/ land use, land surface processes, meteorology and oceanography and has more than 275 peer reviewed papers as a co-author. His early studies on crop discrimination, mapping, crop yield modelling was major contributor ISRO program on agriculture forecasting (1986-2004) and to final acceptance and establishment of a national centre by Ministry of Agriculture in 2012. He has co-guided 10 PhD students.

He has extensive international cooperation experience, as member/leader of Indian delegation to UN Committee of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), Vienna (2013, 2014, 2015), to Science & Technology sub-committee of UNCOPUOS, Vienna (2013-2016) and was Chair of UN COPUOS S&T subcommittee in 2016. He has been member/co-chair of Indian delegation in international cooperation meetings with US, Japan, ESA and China.

His scientific program management experience includes Co-Chair, National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) of DST (2011-2016), Governing Body/Council of Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS, 2011-2016) and many State Remote Sensing Centre as well as in Scientific/Research Advisory Committees of National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Gadanki, National Rice Research Institute (NRRI), Cuttack, 2014-2017, Space Physics Laboratory(SPL), VSSC, etc. He also served as Government nominee in the Board of Antrix Corporation (2014-2016). Currently he is the Chair of Project Advisory and Monitoring Committee (PAMC) of DST - Network Project on Imaging Spectroscopy and Applications (NISA)

Dr. K. S. Dasgupta took over as the second director of IIST in December 2010. Prior to this he was holding the post of Director, Development & Educational Communication Unit-DECU-ISRO since March’08 and also holding the post of Deputy Director-SNPA (SatCom Navigation Payload Area) of Space Application Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad. He joined the Indian Space Research Organization in 1974. He retired from IIST in June 2016.

1. Dr. Dasgupta did his postgraduate degree in Computer Sciences from Jadavpur University and obtained his doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay, Mumbai. His area of research includes Digital Signal & Image Processing, Digital Communication, Computer Networking, and Satellite Communication. He has published several papers in his area of research.
2. As the Director, DECU he lead a group of engineers, producers, social research scientists who were involved in design, configuration and installation of EDUSAT Tele-education and Tele-medicine network, content generation for Tele-education and Science mission, study the social impact of EDUSAT and SATCOM network for social applications.
3. As the Deputy Director, Satcom Navigation Payload Area (SNPA) area he was involved in the design and development of

• Communication Transponders for GEOSAT Programme
• Ground systems and on-board processing system (Digital Subsystems & RF front end) for IRNSS Programme.
• Application Projects like Disaster Management Systems, Satellite based Ground Communication Systems.
• Technology transfer to indian industries
• Technology development programme
• SAC-ISRO institutional collaboration programme

1. He is associated with many professional institutions such as

• Senior member IEEE
• Fellow IETE
• Life member of Computer Society of India.

Dr. Byrana Nagappa Suresh, an aerospace scientist. served as the first Director of IIST. He was the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram during the period 2003-2007. He is known for his contribution to Space Capsule Recovery Experiments (SRE). He retired from IIST in November 2010. Presently he is serving as Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor at ISRO Headquarters since November 2010. He was also distinguished Professor at IIT, Mumbai and MIT, Manipal.

He has been honoured with several awards for his significant contributions in the field of Space Technology.

• Padma Bhushan (2013)
• Padma Shri (2002)
• Distinguished Alumni Award - IIT Madras (2004).
• Dr.Biren Roy Space Science and/or Design Award, 1993 by the Aeronautical Society of India.
• ASI Award 1996, for Rocket & Related Technologies, by Astronautical Society of India, 1996
• “AGNI” Award for excellence in Self Reliance by Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Ministry Of Defence in 1999.
• “Ramanujam Memorial Award” PSG Coimbatore at National System Conference, 2005
• “Technical Excellence award’ by Lions International, Trivandrum, Jan 2006
• “Outstanding Achievement Award” by Indian Space Research Organisation in June 2007.
• “Lifetime Achievement Award” by Indian National Academy of Engineering, INAE) Delhi, in Dec 2007
• “National Systems Gold Medal” for lifetime contributions for large Systems by System Society of India in Dec 2007.
• “Aryabhata Award” for excellent contributions in space technology by Astronautical society of India,for 2009