S. Somanath

Sreedhara Panicker Somanath (born July 1963) is an Indian aerospace engineer serving as the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Under his chairmanship, ISRO carried out the third Indian lunar exploration mission named Chandrayaan-3. The lander named Vikram and the rover named Pragyan landed near the lunar south pole region on 23 August 2023 at 18:04 IST, making India the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and the fourth country to demonstrate soft landing on the Moon. Somanath served as the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram and director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Thiruvananthapuram. Somanath is known for his contributions to launch vehicle design, particularly in the areas of launch vehicle systems engineering, structural design, structural dynamics, and pyrotechnics. Personal life and education Somanath was born in a Malayali Nair family as child of V. Sreedhara Panicker, a Hindi teacher, and Thankamma in Thuravoor in Alappuzha district of Kerala. Somanath did his schooling at St. Augustine's High School, Aroor and completed his pre-university program from Maharaja's College, Ernakulam. He received his graduate degree in mechanical engineering from Thangal Kunju Musaliar College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala University and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore with specialization in dynamics and control. He has a Ph.D. thesis at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras(IIT Madras).For his exemplary contribution in engineering and technology, the Honorary Degree of D.Litt.(Doctor of Literature) has been conferred upon him by the Veer Madho Singh Bhandari Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun (Formerly Uttarakhand Technical University) in its 7th Convocation held on October 10, 2023.