He serves as chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in Thiruvananthapuram and is a professor at ISRO Headquarters.
Suresh's father was an agriculturist in Hosakere, Andagar, a small village near Koppa, situated near Sringeri in Karnataka, India.
[citation needed] He was president of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in Delhi from 2015 to 2018 and director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram from 2003 to 2007,[3] where he contributed to the development of Indian launch vehicles and the Space Capsule Recovery Experiments (SRE), as well as research and development management.
He was a member of the Board of Governors at IIT Madras for seven years, until July 2018, and later became vice chair for the Design Division of the Aeronautical Society of India.
Suresh is president of the Jnanadeepa Senior Secondary School and the Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Education in Shivamogga, Karnataka.