Distinguished Scientist & Director
U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, ISRO, DOS
Government of India, Bengaluru, Karnataka

Shri M Sankaran is a Distinguished Scientist of Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO). He took over as Director of U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), the lead Centre in the country for design, development and realisation of all satellites of ISRO, on June 01, 2021. He is currently leading satellite fraternity to realise various types of satellites to meet the national requirements in the areas like communication, navigation, remote sensing, meteorology and inter-planetary exploration.

He joined the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), currently known as U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) after obtaining his Master's degree in Physics from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli in 1986.

Before taking over as Director, URSC, he was functioning as Deputy Director for Communication and Power Systems Area in URSC and spearheading the developments. During his 37 years of rich experience and expertise of working on more than 120 satellites in URSC / ISRO, he has contributed primarily in the areas of Solar arrays, Power systems, Satellite Positioning System and RF communication systems for Low Earth Orbit(LEO) Satellites, Geostationary Satellites, Navigation Satellites and Space Science Missions like Moon Missions, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), Astrosat and follow-on missions.

He was instrumental in successful realisation of the 70V bus for the ISRO satellites, unique design for power generation and distribution systems for the interplanetary mission like Chandrayaan-1 & 2, Mars Orbiter Mission, Astrosat, etc. He has fostered the industries in the country for fabrication and testing of solar panels, battery systems, etc. He played a significant role leading the Centre in adopting new technological developments thereby achieving the historic feat of Chandrayaan-3 soft landing near the lunar south pole and Aditya-L1 India’s first scientific mission to study about Sun and XPOSAT Polarimetry Mission. He led the team URSC for the demonstration of Advanced R&Ds in the EOS-08 (Microsat-2C) Mission, in-orbit demonstration of Space Docking Experiment (SPADEX) Mission that will serve as a fore-runner for the future challenging Missions and Indo – US joint development NISAR Mission.

As Director, he is leading the Centre towards various prestigious space missions like Human Space Flight-GAGANYAAN, Chandrayaan follow on Missions - Lunar Sample Return Mission and for Crewed Human Landing on Moon, Mars Landing Mission, Advanced technologies for Bharatiya Antariksha Station. Under his leadership, the Satellite centre accomplished a celestial feat of Chandrayaan-3 Lander flawlessly landing near the South pole on the moon and Space Docking Experiment making ISRO & Nation pride demonstrating the Centre’s excellence in the Global Stage.

He has delivered various talks and lectures in national and international forums as part of technical and scientific conferences. He inspires students’ community in promoting space science and STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) education.

He has been awarded ISRO's Performance Excellence Award for the Year 2017, ISRO Team Excellence awards in 2017 and 2018 and ASI - Aryabhata Award for 2023. He has about 50 publications to his credit in Peer Reviewed Journals and International conferences.

Shri. M Sankaran is Member /Fellow of Indian Society of Systems for Science and Engineering (ISSE) Fellow of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE and Aeronautical Society of India (ASI).