Short Profile of the Chief Guest

Dr. S. Somanath

Dr. S. Somanath, Distinguished Scientist and Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Space Commission and Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation

Dr. S. Somanath is a Distinguished Scientist (Apex Grade) and Secretary, Department of Space (DoS), Chairman, Space Commission and Chairman, ISRO since 14 January 2022. Dr. S. Somanath having a career spanning nearly 38 years, is an expert in the field of space technology and systems engineering of launch vehicles and has made significant contributions in many areas.

As Secretary of DoS, he piloted the National Space Policy, facilitated IN-SPACe activation, engagement of ISRO with NGPE and start-ups in space sector and enabled NSIL to aggregate user demands, take up commercial activities including Launch vehicle production and spacecraft operations. Chandrayaan-3 landing near the south pole of Moon was a great success under his leadership. The Aditya-L1, XpoSat, INSAT-3DS, NVS-01, Oceansat, GSAT-24 and commercial PSLV & LVM3-OneWeb missions are some of the recent successes. Under his leadership Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) and Test Vehicle (TV) were developed and landing experiments of the Re-usable Launch Vehicle (RLV-LEX) was accomplished. He plays a crucial role in the architecture of Gaganyaan program for sending Indians to Space and achieved the first Test Vehicle flight for mission abort demonstration. Currently he is focussed on the Space Vision-2047 missions including Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan-C and other exploration missions, Bharatiya Antariksha Station development and human mission to Moon.

As Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) during 2018-21, he was responsible for Launch vehicle technology development where, LVM3-M1/Chandrayaan-2 mission was a major accomplishment. He spearheaded the development of critical systems for the Gaganyaan programme, development of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, Re-usable Launch Vehicle & Air-Breathing technology programs. He was the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) during 2015-18 where, the development and qualification of C25 stage was completed and successfully flown in LVM3-D1 flight. He was the Project Director when the Experimental flight of LVM3-X/CARE mission was successfully accomplished on 18th December, 2014.

Dr. S. Somanath took his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Masters in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and PhD from IITM Chennai. He has been bestowed with many Honorary Doctorates from universities including, Centurion, Karunya, Satyabhama, SRM, Uttarakhand, Sarada Birla, Bangalore, JNTU, KUHS, Amity & DY Patil Vidyapeeth.

He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Fellow of Indian National Academy of Science (INSA), Fellow of Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), Astronautical Society of India (ASI) and a member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He is the President (Elect) of AeSI and President of Society of Aerospace Quality and Reliability (SAQR). National Aeronautics Prize from AeSI, Space gold medal from ASI, Gold medal from Aerospace Engineering Department, Platinum Jubilee award and Distinguished alumni award of IISc, Bangalore, Distinguished fellow award from IIT Kanpur and Karnataka Rajyotsava award were presented to him. Recipient of Hall of Fame Award by the International Astronautical Federation.

He has published papers in journals and conferences in the area of structural dynamics and control, materials modelling, dynamic analysis of separation mechanisms, vibration and acoustic testing, launch vehicle design and launch services management. Dr. S. Somanath has been a delegate to UN-COPUOS, vice President of International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and participated in International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held at different countries.