Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Former ISRO chairman Dr K Sivan has been appointed as the chairman of the Board of Governors at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore for a period of 3 years.
“His appointment came (on August 22) just one day before the historic occasion of Chandrayaan-3 landing on the Moon’s “Shiva-Shakti” point,” said a press release issued by IIT Indore on Thursday. This culminated the tenure of Prof Deepak B Phatak who was the chairman of BoG IIT Indore from Feb 19, 2019 to August 21, 2023.
IIT Indore director Prof. Suhas Joshi said, “We are very happy and excited to have Dr Sivan as the chairperson of IIT Indore BoG. At the same time, we are very thankful to the outgoing Chairperson Phatak who has mentored the institute and taken us to newer heights. Phatak has led us from the front and guided us through his immense experience and out-of-the-box solutions.”
Joshi added, “There could not have been a better time to have Sivan onboard when India has marked a historic occasion through Chandrayaan-3 and shown its acumen and expertise in the field of Space Engineering which was earlier meant for a select few. This year, we introduced 10 new academic programs including a BTech Program in Space Science and Engineering with an intake capacity of 20, including 4 girl students. This is one of its kind program only available at IIT Indore. We already had introduced an MTech. and PhD. Programs in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space engineering since 2016. I am confident that in the guidance of Sivan, the institute is expected to reach newer heights and work in the unexplored field of Space Engineering and contribute to the Space mission of the country.”
“Under the leadership of Sivan, it is expected that IIT Indore will work to collaborate with ISRO and contribute significantly to India’s march into the new space age. The institute is planning to establish more direct collaboration with ISRO through several large-scale programs like the Space Technology Cell, Student Satellite Program and involvement of ISRO scientists and engineers to share their expertise through our UG/PG curriculum,” the press release reads.
Sivan joined Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre on October 29, 1982 and since then has played a key role in the design and development of ISRO’s launch vehicle programme. Under his chairmanship, ISRO launched Chandrayaan 2, the second mission to the moon and in 2019 itself, configured Chandrayaan-3 with the corrections required.
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