Koppillil Radhakrishnan

Koppillil Radhakrishnan (born 29 August 1949) is an Indian space scientist who headed ISRO as Chairman of Space Commission, Secretary of the Department of Space, Government of India. Under his leadership, India became the first country to reach Mars in its first attempt.

Education and personal life Koppillil Radhakrishnan hails from Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district, Kerala from a Malayali Nair family. After his schooling at the National High School, Irinjalakuda, he did two-year Pre-degree studies (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry) at Christ College, Irinjalakuda. He studied Electrical Engineering at the Government Engineering College, Thrissur and acquired BSc (Engg.) degree in First Class with Honours from Kerala University in 1970. He did post-graduate studies in management at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in 1974–76. He obtained doctorate from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, in 2000, for the thesis: 'Some Strategies for the Management of Indian Earth Observation System'.

Indian Space Research Organisation Radhakrishnan joined ISRO in May 1971 at the Space Science & Technology Centre at Thiruvananthapuram (the present Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre) as a design and development engineer of electro-mechanical devices. Later he worked on system planning and technology management for avionics systems of SLV-3, ASLV and PSLV. During 1981–97, at the ISRO Headquarters, he oversaw the preparation and review of annual budgets of ISRO, formulation of decade profile and Five Year Plans for Indian Space programme and the related techno-economic analysis. As the director of National Remote Sensing Agency, he scripted India's modern multi-mission ground station for Earth Observation Satellites.

Space Transportation System and Chandrayaan-1 Mission While at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre as its director, he oversaw five successful launches of PSLV including development of its high-end version PSLV –XL that lofted Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 as well as formulation of Indian Human Spaceflight programme. a re-entry experiment of an uncrewed crew module; ISRO completed two joint satellite missions (Megha Tropiques and SARAL) with the French National Space Agency and inked another agreement with NASA to jointly build an advanced Radar Imaging Satellite. India's standing in the global space market was enhanced as PSLV launched 18 commercial satellites for 11 countries. Through an inclusive organisational process, Radhakrishnan charted out clear programmatic directions and nurtured younger generation of leaders for carrying forward the legacy of ISRO. and extending the application of space technologies and tools to all central ministries are highlights of his leadership regime at ISRO.

During his leadership, ISRO received the 2014 Gandhi Peace Prize; the 2014 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development; the 2014 Knowledge Economy Network KEN Award; the 2014 CNN-IBN Indian of the Year-Lifetime Achievement Award; the 2014 Global Game Changer Award by the Marico Innovation Foundation; and the 2013 CNBC-18 India Business Leader Award-BRAND INDIA. and at significantly low cost (INR 4.5 billion).

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle and Indian Cryogenic Stage GSLV had a checkered history in its initial flights of 2001-2007 and they were powered by cryogenic upper stage of Russia. After failure of the Indian Cryogenic upper stage on GSLV in April 2010 (GSLV-D3) and recurrence one more failure of GSLV with Russian Cryogeinc upper stage (GSLV-F06) in December 2010, Radhakrishnan steered ISRO towards the landmark success in January 2014 GSLV-D5. This marked the beginning of the successful series of GSLV with Indian Cryogenic Upper Stage.

Ocean Observation and Information Services Radhakrishnan had a stint of five years the Ministry of Earth Sciences to set up, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS). In the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster of December 2004, he emerged as the Project Director to set up the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning Centre. Radhakrishnan was drawn into the world of performing arts from childhood. After formal training in Kerala Natanam, under Professor Thrippunithura Vijayabhanu, he had training in Kathakali dance under Guru Pallippuram Gopalan Nair, Kalanilayam Raghavan and Shri T.V.A Varier. Also, he was trained in Carnatic music by eminent musicians like Prof. Vechoor Harihara Subramania Iyer, Dr. R.K. Srikantan, Dr. Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana; currently he is student of Vidwan R.S. Ramakanth. Dr. Radhakrishnan has performed at Bengaluru Sangeethotsav, Sankranthi Music Festival of RK Srikantan Trust, Swaralaya, Bangalore Centre for Kathakali and Arts, JSS Sangeetha Sabha, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar Music Festival at Chennai. He has been singing at the Guruvayoor Chembai Sangeetholsavam every year since 2008.

Major Awards and honours 2003: K.R. Ramanathan Memorial Gold Medal of Indian Geophysical Union 2005: VASVIK Industrial Research Award 2006: Silver Jubilee Honour by Ministry of Earth Sciences 2008: BHASKARA Award of Indian Society of Remote Sensing 2008: Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award of the A.P Academy of Sciences 2009: Social Sciences Award of the International Academy of Astronautics 2010: Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Award of Indian Science Congress 2010: Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT, Kharagpur 2010: Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIM, Bangalore 2014: ISRO's Lifetime Achievement Award 2014: The Allan D. Emil Award of International Astronautical Federation 2014: Ernst & Young Lifetime Achievement Award 2014: Technovation-Sarabhai Award of Indian Electronics & Semiconductor Association 2014: Radhakrishnan received the Padma Bhushan Award for contribution to Science and Engineering, especially in the field of Space Science and Technology. 2015: Lifetime Achievent Award of Union Bank of India 2015: Lifetime Outstanding Innovation Award Indore Management Association 2015: Bharat Asmita Vigyan Tantragyaan Shreshta 2015: P.C. Chandra Purashkar for Lifetime Achievement 2016: Asian Scientist 100, Asian Scientist 2016: Lifetime Achievement Award, Engineers' Forum, Nagpur 2017: Global Indian (Science) Award of Times Network 2018: Qimpro Platinum Standard 2018 (Business)

He has been conferred a doctorate by IIT Kharagpur and honorary doctorates by 12 Indian universities .