K. N. Ninan

Kovoor Ninan Ninan (born 6 September 1946) is a space scientist from India, who has contributed to the development of rocket propellants, polymers and chemical systems for India's space program. He was the Deputy Director

Personal life Born on 6 September 1946 to K.I. Ninan and Annamma of the Kovoor family, at Thiruvalla in the erstwhile Travancore, K. N. Ninan did his schooling from SCS High School Thiruvalla. He obtained his bachelor's degree and Masters in Chemistry from Mar Thoma College, Tiruvalla in 1966 and Prof. C.G. Ramachandran Nair, then head of the department of Chemistry at University of Kerala.

Career Ninan joined the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in 1968 at its Space Science & Technology Centre (presently VSSC) at Thiruvananthapuram as a trainee under Dr. Vasant Gowariker, Head, Propellant Engineering Division, He superannuated in 2008 as an ‘Outstanding Scientist’ and Deputy Director, VSSC after serving the Space Centre in different capacities as: Propellant Engineer, founding Head, Analytical & Spectroscopy Division and Group Director, Propellant & Special Chemicals Group. Towards the development of green propellants for ISRO's future rocket and spacecraft propulsion systems, his team developed and patented the processes for making the high energy fuel binder, glycidylazide polymer (GAP) (Indian Patent 207299) and the chlorine free oxidiser, ammonium dinitramide (ADN), the latter in collaboration with Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (US patent 6787119). The research of his team on polymers included those for launch vehicle cryogenic upper stages and aerospace thermal protection systems, as well as matrix resins for polymer matrix composites such as cyanate esters and polyether nitrile copolymers.

At IIST, he mentored a team of students who made India's first student-designed sounding rocket, named "Vyom" and guided a research project on sorbents with superior CO2 capture performance.

He has over two hundred and forty publications and 28 patents in his credit HEMSI-M R Kurup Endowment Award, High Energy Materials Society of India (2015) Melpadom Attumalil Georgekutty Merit Award, Mar Thoma Church (2012) Netzsch-ITAS Award of Indian Thermal Analysis Society (1987) Fellow, Kerala Academy of Sciences In the Elsevier-Stanford University list of top 2% Scientists Honorary Fellow, Indian Society of Analytical Scientists

Selected patents Indian Space Research Organization (A.U. Francis, S. Venkatachalam and K.N.Ninan), (4 January 2007) "A process for synthesising a hydroxy terminated glycidylazide polymers"’ Indian Patent 207299. BM Choudary, K M Lakshmi, R K Jeeva, K Vijayakumar, C Sridhar (CSIR), S.Venkatachalam, G. Santhosh, R. Ramaswamy. K.N. Ninan; KS. Sastri (VSSC) (15 December 2004) "A process for the Preparation of Dinitramidic acid and salts thereof" European Patent EP1344748A1.

Selected articles Madhusudanan, P. M.; Krishnan, K.; Ninan, K. N. (1993-06-28). "New equations for kinetic analysis of non-isothermal reactions" Thermochimica Acta. 221 (1):13–21.DOI:10.1016/0040-6031(93)80519-G Venkatachalam, S; Santhosh , G; Ninan , K. N. (2004) "An Overview on the Synthetic Routes and Properties of Ammonium Dinitramide (ADN) and other Dinitramide Salts", Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics29 (3) 178 – 187. https://doi.org/10.1002/prep.200400043 Nair, C.P.R., Mathew, D., Ninan, K.N. (2001). "Cyanate Ester Resins, Recent Developments". In: New Polymerization Techniques and Synthetic Methodologies. Advances in Polymer Science, vol 155. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44473-4_1. Saxena, A.; Rao, V. L.; Ninan, K. N. (2003). "Synthesis and properties of polyether nitrile copolymers with pendant methyl groups" European Polymer Journal. 39 (1): 57–61. doi:10.1016/S0014-3057(02)00185-4. Sivadas, Deepthi L.; Vijayan, Sujith; Rajeev, R.; Ninan, K. N.; Prabhakaran, K.(2016). "Nitrogen-enriched microporous carbon derived from sucrose and urea with superior CO2 capture performance". Carbon. 109: 7–18. doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2016.07.057