Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awardee, Dr. B. N. Suresh is the founding Director of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, IIST, at Thiruvananthapuram, and Honorary Distinguished Professor at ISRO HQ. 

A renowned Aerospace Engineer with noteworthy accomplishments in Space technology, Dr. B. N. Suresh is widely known for his contribution to the development of Indian Launch Vehicles and Space Capsule recovery experiments. He has commendably held the post of Director at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the lead centre of ISRO in Launch Vehicle development, from 2003 to 2007. He was also the Head of the Indian delegation for the ‘United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space’, at Vienna, Austria, for four years and was selected to chair the prestigious United Nations Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, in 2006

Dr. B. N. Suresh is the Chairman of Governing Council of MVJ College of Engineering and has several awards and honours to his credit. Prominent among them are Dr. Biren Roy Space Science Design Award from the Aeronautical Society of India in 1993, Agni Award for Excellence in Self-reliance from DRDO in 1999, ASI Award for contribution to rocket and related technologies from the Astronautical Society of India in 2000, Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT, Chennai in 2004. He has also received the IEEE Simon Ramo Award from IEEE for exceptional achievements in Systems Engineering and System Science, and the Pioneer Award, an International Award given at Washington, USA, by the International Council for System Engineering, for his pioneer work in space system engineering.

He is the recipient of Engineering Sciences Book Award given by the International Academy of Astronautics for his outstanding contribution to Astronautics through his Publication of ‘Integrated Design for Space Transportation System Springers’, at the International Astronautical Congress, in Washington DC. He has also co-authored Ever Upwards: ISRO in Images, tracing the history of the Indian Space Research Organisation.