What has a Kathakali artist got to do with the journey to Mars? A lot, because this Kathakali artist is the Director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that created history.
Childhood
Koppillil Radhakrishnan was born on August 29, 1949 in Thrissur, Kerala. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from Kerala University (1970), completed his PGDM from IIM Bangalore (1976) and was awarded Doctorate for his thesis titled “Some Strategies for Indian Earth Observation System†from IIT Kharagpur (2000).
He has excelled in music, dance and other art forms during his educational period. He himself has given vocal stage performances.
Career
He started his career as an Avionics Engineer in 1971 at Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.
He held several key positions in ISRO and was one of the key people behind India’s Chandrayaan-1 moon mission. He was the director of BEA-ISRO (Budget and Economic Analysis) for ten years (1987–1997).
Then he held the position of Vice Chairman for Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO (2001–2005).
He served as the director of National Remote Sensing Agency, Department of Space from 2005–2008. He took charge as the Chairman of ISRO from November 1, 2009.
Awards
In 2014, Radhakrishnan received the Padma Bhushan Award for his contribution to Science and Engineering, especially in the field of Space Science and Technology.
Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Award of Indian Science Congress in 2010