News Source: timesofindia
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An 18-year old student from West Bengal, Sataparna Mukherjee has made India proud by becoming the youngest Indian to be selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the eminent Goddard Internship Programme (GIP) under the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).
The 12th class student hails from a village named Kamduni located around 30 km from Kolkata. Sataparna is among the five exceptional students from across the globe chosen for this programme. The space agency will fund her entire education after school.
The teen will give her school-leaving exams this year from St Judes School, Madhyamgram, in Kamduni. She will be advancing to Oxford University, where she will pursue her graduation, post-graduation and Ph.D. as a NASA faculty in aerospace engineering at its London Astrobiology Centre.
“It all begun in May last year when I was a part of a group on a social networking site where there were so many members, including some scientists. On the day I shared some of my thoughts on ‘Black Hole Theory’, and one of the members of this group provided me Nasa’s official website and told me to post my findings, which I did,”Sataparna said to The Times Of India.
Mukherjee’s concept on Black hole Theory, and how this could be used to create a ‘Time Machine’, was highly admired. Under the Goddard Internship Programme, she will work as an “employee and researcher“, where she will be part of its earth science and technology development programme. NASA is paying her a generous sum as honorarium, apart from bearing all her expenses.
Sataparna’s father Pradip Mukherjee, a headmaster of a primary school, is a proud man since he came to know about her daughter’s selection for the prestigious programme. Her father had been a courageous man leading people’s movement against politicians and goons to drop the infamous Kamduni gang-rape case. She will leave for London on August 17, though NASA is paying her a generous amount of money, the family will have to bear the expense for the travelling.
The Logical Indian congratulates Sataparna for her accomplishment and wishes her a successful career ahead. We salute the spirits of this magnificent young girl who made not only her family but the entire nation proud. We hope that a lot of girls draws inspiration from her and pursue higher education and increasing the participation of women in every sphere nationally.
