THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: K Sivan is the new chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and secretary, Department of Space. The senior ISRO hand, who hails from Tamil Nadu, was serving as director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thumba.
Sivan succeeds A S Kiran Kumar to the top post. The appointment is for three years, according to approval issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
An alumnus of the Madras Institute of Technology, IISc Bangalore and IIT Bombay, Sivan joined ISRO in 1982 in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) project.
He is the chief architect of the 6D trajectory simulation software, SITARA, the backbone of the real-time trajectory simulations of all ISRO launch vehicles.
He has contributed to critical projects of ISRO including the parallel computing facility, hypersonic wind-tunnel facility, Mars mission and reusable launch vehicle programme. He was appointed project director of the Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle project in April 2011 and director LPSC in July 2014. He took over as chief of VSSC, ISRO’s lead centre, in June 2015.
Sivan is married to Malathi. They have two sons, Sushanth and Siddharth.
ISRO has not announced the name of the new VSSC director. S Somanath, the present director of ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), is the likely choice as he is the senior hand.