Dr. K. Sivan served as the Secretary, Department of Space, Chairman, Space Commission and Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from January 2018 to January 2022.

Dr. K Sivan joined ISRO in 1982 and was inducted into PSLV Project. He is specialised in Aerospace engineering, Space Transportation Systems Engineering, Launch vehicle and mission design, control & guidance design and mission simulation software design, Mission synthesis, simulation, analysis and validation of flight systems.

He has significantly contributed towards end-to-end mission planning, design, integration and analysis. His innovative contributions, particularly the strategies adopted in mission design enabled the consistent performance of PSLV. This has also proved to be a good foundation for other launch vehicles of ISRO, like, GSLV MkII & MkIII including RLV-TD. He is the chief architect of 6D trajectory simulation software, SITARA, which is the backbone of the real-time and non-real-time trajectory simulations of all ISRO launch vehicles. He was responsible for commissioning world-class simulation facility in ISRO for mission synthesis and analysis, which is used for mission design, sub-system level validation and integrated validation of avionics systems in all ISRO launch vehicles. He developed and implemented an innovative 'day-of launch wind biasing strategy' that enables rocket launch on any day, under varied weather and wind conditions. He was the chief mission architect for successful launch of 104 satellites in a single mission of PSLV.

He has received many awards including Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from selected universities

He has numerous publications in various reputed Journals including a book in Nov 2015 “Integrated Design for Space Transportation System” published by Springer.