P. Kunhikrishnan (born 30 May 1961) is a Space Scientist from India. Currently, he is a Distinguished Scientist (Apex Scale) & Former Director of U.R.Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), in

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He was a member of Space Commission, Government of India

Education

Kunhikrishnan completed his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

from

Payyanur College Payyannur College is a government aided college located at Edat village in Payyannur, Kerala, India, which is affiliated to Kannur University under Payyanur Educational Society. Notable alumni * K. C. Venugopal * M. K. Raghavan * T. V. Raje ...

in 1981 and later completed

BTech A Bachelor of Technology (BTech) is an undergraduate degree that is awarded for a higher education program in engineering. Countries Australia In Australia, the Bachelor of Technology degree is offered by RMIT University, Edith Cowan Univ ...

Electronics & Communication Engineering Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of Passivity (engineering), active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and contr ...

from College of Engineering(CET), Trivandrum in 1986.

Career

Kunhikrishnan joined

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...

in 1986 after graduating from College of Engineering, Trivandrum(CET). He was part of Systems Reliability Entity at

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) is a major space research centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), focusing on rocket and space vehicles for India's satellite programme. It is located in Thiruvananthapuram, in the India ...

(VSSC) and contributed to various launch vehicle missions starting from ASLV-D1. He was Associate Project Director for PSLV-C12 & PSLV-C14, Project Director of PSLV-C15 to PSLV-C27 (from the year 2010 to 2015) and Deputy Director of VSSC for Mechanisms, Vehicle Integration and Testing (MVIT). As a Project Director, he could accomplish 13 consecutive successful

PSLV The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite ...

missions including the launch of India's prestigious Mars Orbiter Mission(Mangalyaan) by PSLV-C25. In 2015, he took over as the Director of

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Satish Dhawan Space Centre – SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range – SHAR) is the primary spaceport of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh. The spaceport is located on an isl ...

Sriharikota Sriharikota () is a barrier island off the Bay of Bengal coast located in the Shar Project settlement of Tirupati district in Andhra Pradesh, India. It houses the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, one of the two satellite launch centres in India (the ...

, the Spaceport of India. As Director, during 2015-2018, he was instrumental in transforming the Spaceport of India into a world-class facility by establishing & initiating huge infrastructure to support multiple launches per year, catering to the futuristic demand. The 'Visitors Complex' at Sriharikota, that enables 10,000 visitors to witness satellite launches, was conceived and initiated by him during this period. In 2018, he took over as the Director of U.R.Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru, the lead Centre in the country for design, development and realization of all the satellites of ISRO. As Director of URSC, he was steering the Centre in realising India’s Satellites for national requirements and their operationalization in respective orbits. 13 satellites were launched under his leadership. He was the Chairman of Working Group of the Whole (WGW) of United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer space (UNCOPUOS) headquartered at Vienna. He is the National President of Indian Society of Systems for Science and Engineering (ISSE). He is a member of Space Commission, Government of India since Feb, 2020.

Personal life

Kunhikrishnan was born on 30 May 1961 in

Payyanur Payyanur (), is a municipal town and a taluk, a sub-district administrative unit, in the Kannur district of Kerala, India. Payyanur is the first municipality in Kerala to establish libraries in all its wards. On 10 March 2018, Kerala Chief Min ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

as the son of (Late) A K P Chinda Poduval and P Narayani Amma. His wife, Girija is an engineer at

(VSSC).His sons are Navaneeth Krishnan and Aravind Krishnan. Kunhikrishnan is also a trained

Indian classical Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is generally described using terms like ''Shastriya Sangeet'' and ''Marg Sangeet''. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindusta ...

flautist The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

Awards and honors

Source: * ISRO Individual Merit Award, 2010 * Astronautical Society of India (ASI) Award, 2011 * ISRO Performance Excellence Award, 2013 * ISRO Team Excellence Award as Team Leader of PSLV C-25/Mars Orbiter Mission, 2013 * Swadeshi Sastra Puraskar, 2013 *Sir CV Raman Memorial award *IET Eminent Engineer Award, 2020 *Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from LNCT University, 2021 *Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from GITAM University, 2019 *Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), 2016 *ISRO Outstanding Achievement Award for Distinguished service in ISRO, 2018 *Vigyan Pratibha Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh, 2017 *Astronautical Society of India (ASI) award, 2011 *National President, Indian Society of Systems for Science & Engineering - ISSE *Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineers - INAE *Fellow of Institution of Electrical & Telecom Engineering - IETE *Fellow of AP Academy of SciencesChairman, Working Group of the Whole in United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer space (UNCOPUOS) *Co-chair for India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group (CSJWG) *Co-Chair, ISRO-German working group on space subject. *Member, International Academy of Astronautics (IAA)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kunhikrishnan, P Living people 1961 births People from Kannur district Engineers from Kerala Indian Space Research Organisation people Satish Dhawan Space Centre Indian space scientists