Government appoints Kiran Kumar Alur Seelin as ISRO chairman

NEW DELHI: The government has appointed Kiran Kumar Alur Seelin, a key figure behind Mangalyaan, as the new Secretary, Department of Space and the ISRO Chief for the next 3 yrs, succeeding K. Radhakrishnan who superannuated on December 31.

Seelin, who was a Director in the Space Application Centre, will be Chairman of the Space Commission and Secretary, Department of Space on re-employment on contract basis for the next three years, an order issued by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) said. Radhakrishnan, who was holding these posts, had superannuated on December 31 after being granted a brief extension by the government.

Seelin is credited for leading the team which developed three of the five scientific instruments fitted on the Mars Orbiter Mission satellite. The space scientist was awarded Padma Shri by the government last year.

He joined ISRO in 1975 and has contributed to the design and development of Electro-Optical Imaging Sensors for Airborne, LEO and GEO platform based imaging sensors starting from Bhaskara TV payload to the latest payloads for Chandrayaan-1 missions. He has made very significant contributions in evolving the observation strategy encompassing, Land, Ocean atmospheric and planetary studies.

Seelin has also steered the design and realisation of communication, navigation, microwave and remote-sensing payloads for many satellites. He obtained his B.Sc. (Honours) in Physics and M.Sc. in Electronics from Bangalore University and an M.Tech. in Physical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.