Dipankar Banerjee
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

Astrophysicist Dipankar Banerjee took charge as Director, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), on Monday.

Professor Banerjee, a senior professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, was serving as Director, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, prior to the current assignment. He has headed ARIES, a facility under the Department of Science and Technology, since December 2019. It is after a gap of three years that the IIST, at Valiamala here, is getting a full-time director.

Professor Banerjee has taken over the charge of IIST from S. Unnikrishnan Nair, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, who had been holding additional charge of IIST since September 2022. IIST was established in 2007 as a deemed to be university under the Department of Space for moulding space scientists for the Indian space programme.