2. About S.Somnath Sir
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
3. Areas of Focus
• Integrity
• Respectfulness
• Leadership
• Empathy
• Hard Work and Dedication
Taking charge: Somanath was chosen as secretary, Department of
Space and Chairman, Space Commission on 14 January 2022. He
took over from Dr K Sivan as the chief of ISRO in 2022
Journey to the top: Prior to becoming ISRO chairman, Somanath served
as a director at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC),
Thiruvananthapuram. In 1985, he was a team leader for the integration of
polar satellite launch vehicles (PSLV) during the early phases.
Area of expertise: Somanath’s expertise lies in the system engineering
of launch vehicles. He received a ‘Merit Award’ and a ‘Performance
Excellence Award’ from ISRO and a ‘Team Excellence Award’ for GSLV Mk-
III development. He is also the recipient of the ‘Space Gold Medal’ from
the Astronautical Society of India.
Academics: He pursued a B. Tech in mechanical engineering from TKM
College of Engineering, Kollam, and holds a master’s in aerospace
engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore with a
specialisation in Structures, Dynamics and Control, with a gold medal.
India’s representative: Somanath has travelled widely as a delegate and
representative of India including in events such as UN-COPOUS at Vienna,
International Astronautical Federation (IAF)’s International Program
Committees, International Astronautical Congress (IAC), as per ISRO’s
website.
4. What We Learn
• Rigorous Testing
• Openness To Collaboration
• Clear Communication With Public
• Robust Redundancy Planning
• Calculating Decisions
• Prioritize Research
• Continuous Skill Development
• Budget And Resource Management
• Celebrate All Milestones
• Embrace Failure As a Stepping
Stone, Not Stumbling Block
When conducting research, it is easy to go to one source: Wikipedia. However, you need to include a variety of sources in your research. Consider the following sources:
Who can I interview to get more information on the topic?
Is the topic current and will it be relevant to my audience?
What articles, blogs, and magazines may have something related to my topic?
Is there a YouTube video on the topic? If so, what is it about?
What images can I find related to the topic?
You can use this slide as your opening or closing slide. Should you choose to use it as a closing, make sure you review the main points of your presentation. One creative way to do that is by adding animations to the various graphics on a slide. This slide has 4 different graphics, and, when you view the slideshow, you will see that you can click to reveal the next graphic. Similarly, as you review the main topics in your presentation, you may want each point to show up when you are addressing that topic.
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