Muthunayagam is former Secretary, Department of Ocean Development, Government of India, and former director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation. He has been recognised for the 2010 award.
Saraswat, awarded for 2011, is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister and the Director General of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
ASI is a professional society set up in 1990 serving for promotion of astronautics and space in the country through dissemination of knowledge and information related to the subject.
The awards were instituted to recognise talented scientists and engineers who have made outstanding achievements and significant contributions in different areas of astronautics and space, a release said.
ASI has selected the awardees, under different categories, for 2010 and 2011 based on recommendations by two high level expert committees.
ASI awards for rocket and related technologies have been given to G Satheesh Reddy, Research Centre Imarat, DRDO (2010) and P Kunhikrishnan, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), ISRO, (2011).
The awards under spacecraft and related technologies went to P Chakraborty, Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS), ISRO (2010) and Yateendra Mehta, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), ISRO (2011). (MORE)
