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An aerospace engineer and chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), S Somanath, is now 'Dr' Somanath. After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Somnath said that it is a great honor to receive a degree from a prestigious institution like IIT-Madras.
An aerospace engineer and chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), S Somanath, is now ‘Dr’ Somanath. After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Somnath said that it is a great honor to receive a degree from a prestigious institution like IIT-Madras. “As a village boy, even though I was a topper, I didn’t have the guts to write the IIT entrance exam. But I dreamed of graduating from here one day. I got my Master’s degree from an eminent Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and now a PhD from IIT-Madras.”
He added, “PhD is always difficult, especially from a reputed institution like IIT-Madras. It’s a long journey. I enrolled many years ago, but the research topic is very close to my heart. It’s related to vibration isolators. I worked as an engineer on an ISRO project decades ago. The starting point was alive in my mind, and I worked on it for many years.”
Dr. Somnath was beaming when the Vikram lander, part of the historic Chandrayaan-3 mission, touched down on the lunar surface on August 23 last year. His smile brightened even more as he received his PhD on Friday at the 61st convocation of IIT-Madras.
“I have to tell you that this PhD is the result of my last 35 years of hard work in turning that work into this PhD and publishing papers, attending seminars, and defending it at the final stage. You see. This is only the final stage, but it has been a long journey,” he said.
Dr. Somnath talked about his schooling at St. Augustine’s High School, Arur, Allapuzha District, Kerala, before proceeding to Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. He holds a graduate degree in mechanical engineering from Thangal Kunju Musaliyar College of Engineering, Kollam. He joined ISRO in 1985 and became its chairman.
At ISRO, as Secretary DoS, he piloted many innovative ideas such as piloting the National Space Policy, ISRO’s engagement with NGPE, and enabled NSIL to take up commercial activities, integrating start-ups and user demands in the space sector, including launch vehicle production and spacecraft operations.
Chandrayaan-3 landing near the South Pole of the Moon was the greatest success under his leadership. Aditya-L1, XpoSat, INSAT-3DS, NVS-01, Oceansat, the first test vehicle flight for the mission GSAT-24, and commercial PSLV and LVM3-OneWeb missions are some of the recent achievements under his belt. Under Somnath, the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) and Test Vehicle (TV) were developed, and landing experiments with the Re-usable Launch Vehicle (RLV-LEX) were achieved.
He played a key role in building the Gaganyaan program to send Indians into space. Currently, he is focused on Space Vision-2047 missions, including Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan-series, other exploration missions, the development of an Indian space station, and a manned mission to the Moon.
