Somanath is an aerospace engineer and chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization Chennai He has a PhD from I.I.T.
The 61st convocation ceremony of IIT Chennai was held today (July 19). Around 2,636 scholars were awarded degrees at this year’s convocation, including graduate students with B.Tech degrees. Nobel laureate Professor Brian K Kopilka was the special guest on the occasion.
In this situation, ISRO Chairman Somanath has received the degree of Doctor at today’s graduation ceremony of IIT Chennai. Somanath has already received several honorary doctorates for his work as the lead developer for India’s heavy missile Launch Mark Vehicle Mark-3 and for leading the successful landing of the Vikram lander near the South Pole of the Moon.
But this is the first time to get a PhD by research. After the jubilation of Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander touching the moon’s surface on August 23 last year, Somnath is now rejoicing with his Ph.D.
After Dr. Somanath received his doctorate, receiving a degree from a prestigious institution like IIT Chennai was a “huge honor.” As a village boy, even though I was a topper, I.I.T. I don’t have the guts to write the entrance exam. But I dreamed that one day I will graduate from here. I did my Masters from the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. And now I have got Ph.D from IIT, Chennai, he happily said.
Studying PhD is always difficult, especially studying in a reputed institution like IIT Chennai is even more difficult. It’s a long journey. I signed up years ago, but the research subject was very close to my heart. The topic of vibration isolators was alive in my mind when I started as an engineer in an ISRO project decades ago and I worked on it for many years. Somanath said that this doctorate is the result of my last 35 years of work.
Dr. Somanath did his schooling at St. Augustine’s High School, Aroor, Alappuzha District, Kerala, and then Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. He completed his Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Thangal Kunju Musaliar College of Engineering, Kollam. Somanath, who joined ISRO in 1985, has now risen to become its chief.
The Chandrayaan-3 landing near the South Pole of the Moon was a major success under his leadership. Aditya-L1, Exposat, Insat-3DS, NVS-01, Oceansat, Gsat-24 and commercial PSLV & LVM3-OneWeb missions are some of the recent successes. Under his leadership the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) and Test Vehicle (TV) were developed, the landing tests of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV-LEX) were accomplished.
Somanath is now playing a key role in building the Gaganyaan program to send Indians into space. Also, Somanath is focusing on Space Vision-2047 missions which include Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan-series and other exploration missions, development of Bharatiya Antarikasha station and manned mission to Moon.
