BENGALURU: Alur Seelin Kiran Kumar was appointed the new chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday.
An alumnus of National College, Bengaluru, he completed his Physics (Honours) degree in 1971. Kumar then moved on to obtain a masters degree in electronics from Bangalore University in 1973 and then an MTech degree in Physical Engineering from IISc Bangalore in 1975.
Kumar, who hails from Hassan, was appointed chairman since he was the senior-most scientist in ISRO after K Radhakrishnan retired in December.
The government had appointed Shailesh Nayak as interim chairman after Radhakrishnan’s exit.
Kumar joined ISRO in 1975 and has contributed to the design of several payloads for the Chandrayaan-1 Mission.
His contributions include the sectors of land, ocean, atmospheric and planetary studies. A Padma Shri awardee, Kumar has also won several other awards, including the ISRO Individual Service Award, 2006.
He took over as director of the ISRO Space Applications Centre in 2012 after succeeding R R
Navalgund.
Kumar had steered design and realisation of communication, navigation, microwave and remote sensing payloads at the Space Applications Centre.
Kumar has also made significant contributions to India’s Mars Orbiter Mission and is responsible for designing the payloads on the orbiter, specifically the Mars Colour Camera, Methane Sensor and Thermal Infrared Imaging Sensors.
An order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training stated that Kumar was appointed as secretary of the Department of Space and Chairman of Space Commission.
Kumar has been appointed for a period of three years on re-employment on contract basis, the order said.