U.P. Rajeev has been appointed Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram.

He had been working as Associate Director (Research and Development), VSSC. Dr. Rajeev has extensive experience in the area of rocket control and guidance, and has led the mission designs and mission simulations of major launch vehicles of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the VSSC said.

Dr. Rajeev hails from Pathanapuram in Kollam district. After graduating in Applied Electronics and Instrumentation from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, he did his post graduation at the National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode. He did his PhD at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, after starting his career at the VSSC.

Dr. Rajeev is the son of Unnikrishnan Nair and Padmakshi Amma. Asha P. Nair, a senior scientist at the VSSC, is his wife. The couple has a daughter, Parvathy Nair.