K. Santhanam is Director of IDSA. He superannuated from the Defence R&D Organisation as Chief Advisor (Technology). He was Scientific Advisor in the Ministry of External Affairs and a member of the National Security Advisory Board. He was conferred the Padma Bhushan award by the Government in recognition of contributions to the Shakti-98 series of nuclear tests conducted in Pokhran in May 1998. He co-authored two books and is the editor of IDSA's journal, Strategic Analysis.
Dr Srikanth Kondapalli has been a research faculty member of IDSA for about a decade. He has published two books and a monograph on China and is currently writing a book on Chinese Air Force. He has M. Phil. and Ph.D. in Chinese studies and was a post-doctoral Visiting Fellow at People's University in Beijing. He learnt Chinese language at Beijing during his stay there from 1996 to 1998.