Dr. Surendra Pal

Dr. Surendra Pal, an alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India superannuated as Distinguished Scientist, Associate Director and Program Director, Satellite Navigation Program at ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, India. He joined Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in 1971, after a brief tenure at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Dr. Pal pioneered the Microwave, Antenna & RF communication activities at the ISRO Satellite Centre at the inception. He was responsible for the development & fabrication of all spacecraft related telecommunication systems for India's all satellites beginning with Aryabhata to the present day IRS & INSAT series of spacecraft & Chandrayaan-1. Dr. Pal is also responsible for pioneering satellite based navigation activities in India. He was spear-heading the Indian Satellite Based Wide Area Augmentation System - GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation System) and Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) activities for aviation for civilian & restricted users. Dr Pal and his team successfully took the challenge of designing 32 M diameter antenna system for Indian Deep Space Network for Chandrayaan-I.
 

He is on the United Nations panel of experts on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and Chaired/participated in various UN meetings at Vienna, Geneva and at other international venues. Dr. Pal is a Distinguished Fellow of IETE, Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, India, and is a Fellow of the IEEE.

His expertise in his field has been utilized as consultant by many national and international organizations.

 (I) INMARSAT/ICO (UK) for LEOSAT definitions, responsible for the development of  Satellite Hand Held Telephone Antenna System for ICO (UK)

(ii) International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for defining Regional African Satellite Communication System 

(iii) Nanyang Technolgical University, Singapore on X-Sat.  He was also Chairman of Information Infrastructure Working Group of Ministry  of Information Technology. He had also carried out special antenna developments for DRDO-India.