Our Program Director
Dr. Rajashree V. Bothale
Dr. Rajashree Vinod Bothale obtained her PhD in Civil Engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur and post graduate in Civil Engineering with specialisation in Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry from University of Roorkee (Now IIT, Roorkee). She completed her graduation from Government Engineering College, Raipur (now NIT, Raipur). She joined Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1987 at RRSC, Nagpur and has been working in remote sensing and geospatial technology applications in different fields. She then worked at Regional Centre, Jodhpur for 21 years and contributed in the field of water resources applications. Her contribution through eleven Pan India projects for Central Water Commission have paved the way for the project India-WRIS. She did reservoir capacity estimation for 35 reservoirs, waterlogging and salinity mapping for major and medium irrigation commands and many other national, regional and local projects. Dr. Rajashree coordinated the activities of SISDP project at Nagpur and carried out work in river linking projects.
On Government deputation, she served as an ITEC expert on Remote Sensing and GIS to Government of Mauritius. Her work on creating the Mauritius database and the development of software package “Mauris” was appreciated by the Mauritius Government.
She has developed application software like KSHAMTA (Got copyright), MAURIS, SARANSH, PARIKRAMA etc. and was part of development of GEOSMART (Copyright), WARIS and CAIS software.
As a member of 35th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica, Dr. Rajashree carried out research in the field of cryosphere. She utilised scatterometer data towards cryosphere studies in Antarctica and Himalayas and produced geophysical products for NICES portal. Her work has culminated in good number of papers in peer reviewed journals.
As General Manager, Outreach Facility and then as Group Director, TEOG, she spearheaded the development of the facility. Under her leadership Outreach facility has been developed and training & outreach of NRSC has seen new heights. The facility has won Official language implementation award for five years in row. Major outreach programmes like Vikram Sarabhai Centenary Programme, Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav, ISRO Cyber Space Competition, Yuvika-2022 are coordinated by her.
She is recipient of the ISRO team excellence award; Featured as one amongst 51 achievers in E-book on “Women in STEM” (2021), got presentation awards and appreciation.
Dr. Rajashree Vinod Bothale is presently Deputy Director, Earth & Climate Sciences Area. As project Director, NICES she has organised NICES workshops, submitted decadal plan for NICES and supervising ECVs and geophysical products generation.
She has written 2 Technical books in Hindi, 3 Atlases, published 26 & 6 papers in International & National journals, 1 book on creative art "Plate Art" and 89 technical reports. She was instrumental in bringing out Coffee Table book showcasing “75 major activities of ISRO”. She is reviewer for many journals, fellow of Institution of Engineers and life member of societies. She has delivered >100 invited talks. Her book “अंतरिक्ष एक खोज” got first prize (ISRO) and Second Prize in Delhi Book fare.
Former Program Directors
Dr. MVR Sesha Sai (2017-2022)
Dr. PVN Rao (2015-2017)
