MUMBAI: AS Kiran Kumar, distinguished scientist and associate director, Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, has assumed the office of Director, Space Applications Centre.

Kumar took over the charge from Dr R R Navalgund.

Joining SAC/Isro in 1975, Kumar has made immense contribution to the design and development of Electro-Optical Imaging Sensors for Airborne, Low Earth Orbit and Geostationary orbit satellites starting from Bhaskara TV payload to the latest Terrain Mapping Camera and Hyperspectral Imager payloads for Chandrayaan-1 mission. He has made significant contributions to the task of evolving the observation strategy encompassing land, ocean, atmospheric and planetary studies.

As Associate Director of Space Applications Centre, Kumar has steered the design and realisation of communication, navigation, microwave and remote sensing payloads.

Kumar obtained B.Sc (Honours) degree in Physics and M.Sc degree in Electronics from Bangalore University as well as M.Tech degree in Physical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Kumar is the recipient of many laurels and awards like Indian Society of Remote Sensing Award for the year 1994, VASVIK award (Electronic Sciences and Technology) for the year 1998, Astronautical Society of India Award (Space Sciences and Applications) for the year 2001, Isro Individual Service Award 2006, Bhaskara Award conferred by the Indian Society of Remote Sensing for the year 2007, Laurels for Team Achievement Award 2008 of the International Academy of Astronautics and Isro Performance excellence Award 2008.

He is a fellow of the National Academy of Engineers and Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics. Kumar has represented Iro in international forums like World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and is currently the chairman of CEOS.