Sri. M. Chandra Dathan (born in 1951) graduated in Chemical Engineering in the year 1971 from Government Engineering College, Thrissur and took his M.Tech in Rocket Propulsion from Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) in 1985. He started his career as Lecturer in Manipal Engineering College and then joined ISRO (then SSTC) Thiruvananthapuram in 1972. Sri Dathan then moved to Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR) in 2004. During the period from 2004 to 2008 he held various position at SDSC SHAR from General Manager, Solid Propellant Space Booster Plant (SPROB), Deputy Director, SPROB & SPP and Vehicle Assembly and Static Test Facilities (VAST), Associate Director, SDSC SHAR and finally as Director of the SDSC SHAR Centre in 2008. He then became the Director Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) in 2013 and from 2014 to 2015 he served as Director, VSSC. He has been honoured with ‘Individual Service Award-2006’ of ISRO by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam in 2007, ‘Outstanding Chemical Engineer’ Award-2009 from IIChE and ‘Performance Excellence Award’ of ISRO in 2009. Government of India has honoured him with Padmasree Award in 2014. Currently Sri Dathan is assigned as the Scientific Advisor to Chief Minister of Kerala.