IISc Honors Maruthi R Akella for Lunar Mission Contributions
Maruthi R Akella is recognized for his pivotal role in the IM-1 lunar lander mission and named after minor planet 5376.
CALIFORNIA, Nov 13: Aerospace scientist Maruthi R Akella has been honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for his contributions to lunar exploration.
Akella, who completed his Master of Engineering at IISc in 1994, is currently the Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His work on spacecraft guidance and control systems was instrumental in the success of Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 lunar lander mission, which marked the first U.S. Moon landing in over half a century. As a result of his contributions, minor planet 5376 has been officially named ‘Maruthiakella.’
Alongside Akella, IISc will honor four other distinguished alumni during the awards ceremony scheduled for December 19, 2026. The recipients include B.S. Manjunath, a computer scientist; Dipankar Das Sarma, a physicist; Jagannath Nayak, a defense scientist at DRDO; and Rajat Moona, a technology leader at IIT Gandhinagar.
Manjunath’s research in computer vision led to the development of BisQue, an open-source platform essential for the U.S. National Science Foundation’s CyVerse, while Das Sarma has advanced material science and secured international research facilities for India.
Nayak spearheaded the native development of high-accuracy Fiber Optic Gyroscopes for defense systems, and Moona shaped essential components of India’s digital infrastructure, including electronic voting technologies and the FASTag system.
The IISc will also bestow Young Alumnus/Alumna Medals to three researchers under 40: Abhishek Sinha, Geethu Joseph, and Himanshu Joshi, who have made contributions in theoretical computer science, autonomous systems, and computational biophysics respectively.
IISc Director Prof. G Rangarajan remarked, “It is always wonderful to see our alumni making a mark in their chosen fields and contributing to society in so many different ways.” He emphasized that the awards celebrate the journeys and achievements of alumni and continue to inspire the IISc community.