BANGALORE: The death of ISRO's scientific secretary Rajeev Lochan has shocked the city's scientific community.

ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair told The Hindu that Mr. Lochan was a "great asset of ISRO not just on the technology front but also in forging international links."

Expressing grief over the death of Lochan and Chandran, the driver of the car in which they were travelling, Dr. Nair said that Lochan played a vital role in opening up international cooperation with the U.S., Russia and Brazil. "The last rites will be conducted on Monday after Lochan's son arrives from the U.S.," he said.

"The condition of S. Krishnamurthy, Director (Publications and Public Relations), who was travelling with Lochan, is stable. Junior colleagues of Lochan and scientists who directly worked under him condoled his death and said that "ISRO had lost an able scientist. There is no substitute to Lochan. It is really sad."

Describing Mr. Lochan as a "gentleman and a diplomat," one of his colleagues said: "He was an excellent person, who had great concern for all his junior colleagues. He was hardworking and completed all tasks entrusted to him with perfection."

Mr. Lochan graduated in Mechanical Engineering from BIT Sindri (Bihar), in 1973 and received his Master's in Aeronautical Engineering from IIT, Kanpur, in 1976 before joining VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram, in March 1997. He participated in the "Design & Development of a 7"X9" Blow-down Tri-sonic Wind Tunnel" at the Department of Aeronautical Engineering.

Mr. Lochan was engaged in the research of diverse aspects of flight mechanics of launch vehicles. "He, with his team, was responsible for the design, analysis, simulation, and analysis of ground test and post-flight analysis of all staging events of the launch vehicle projects."

He served as counselor (Space) at Embassy of India, Washington D.C., USA from November 1997 to May 2001. In this capacity, he looked after some aspects of international cooperation, marketing of aerospace products and service, procurement, and public relation. He represented Indian Interests as Alternate Governor to INTELSAT.

As Scientific Secretary of ISRO he supported in formulation and implementation of various policies and programs within ISRO and managment of all interface of ISRO with outside agencies within the country and beyond. He had interests in legal dimensions of Space and has a shaped formulation of ISRO position on many important legal matters of International importance. He has represented ISRO in many international forums related to Space Law including the Legal Sub Committee of the UN-COPUOS, the UN and also in the treaty negotiation on the Space Assets Protocol of UNIDROIT. Dr. Rajeev also has been instrumental in formulating ISRO strategy towards capacity building in law of pertinence to space. A few articles related to law carry his name as author. He has published many papers in national and international referred professional journals. He was the member of the Indian Society of International Law.

Dr. Rajeev Lochan being a Advisor of TPSY helped in many ways to learn more about International treaty's and policy matters.

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