Radhakrishnan takes over as ISRO chairman

Eminent scientist K. Radhakrishnan Saturday took over as chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre here and acknowledged the expectations from him "in carrying on the good work".

"I have now taken over as the chairman and as I have said before this is going to be a huge responsibility and also a lot of expectation for me to carry on the good work with the help and support of all the employees," Radhakrishnan told mediapersons.

Radhakrishnan took over as chairman of India's space agency from G. Madhavan Nair. Under his chairmanship - since 2003 - ISRO successfully launched 25 missions, including India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008.

Soon after taking charge, Radhakrishnan left for a function at the recently launched campus of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) on the outskirts of the ciy.

Radhakrishnan, an electrical engineer from Kerala University of the 1970 batch, holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore and a doctorate from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur.

Starting his career at ISRO here as an avionics engineer in 1971, he went on to hold key positions such as director of the Regional Remote Sensing Service Centres under the umbrella of the National Natural Resources Management System (1989-97).

During 2000-2005, he was with the Department of Ocean Development (presently Ministry of Earth Sciences) as the founder director of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and project director of the Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges.