(Image source from: 18-year-old Sataparna Mukherjee of West Bengal gets NASA scholarship})

Sataparna Mukherjee, class 12 girl,  from a village near Kolkata has been chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the prestigious Goddard Internship Program (GIP) under the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). NASA\'s GIP selects five exceptional students from across the globe and funds their entire education after school.

She will pursue graduation, post graduation and PhD (as NASA faculty) in aerospace engineering at its London Astrobiology Centre, after she finishes her exams from her school at Madhyamgram in Kamduni. \"I am very happy to get this opportunity where I will also work as a researcher at the NASA centre in London,\" she said.

The eighteen-year-old had shared her thoughts on \'Black Hole Theory\' on a social networking site, which has many members including scientists. One of the members gave her the link of NASA\'s official website and asked her to post her findings. Following this, she sent her paper on Black Hole Theory and how it could be used to make a Time Machine to NASA.

Her father Pradip Mukheree, a headmaster of a primary school who led a people\'s movement against goons and political pressure, to drop the infamous June 2013 Kamduni gang-rape case, said, \"She has made us, and the entire country, proud.\"

Her teacher Pulak Chakraborty, an English professor from Nabagram Hiralapal College who is acting as her referee at Oxford said that, Mukherjee was a good student. \"She is original, and that has made her attain so much,\" he said.

Sataparna is among five scholars chosen from across the world for NASA\'s prestigious program and the youngest Indian ever selected for a research project. She will be going to Oxford University, where she will pursue her graduation, post-graduation and PhD (as NASA faculty) in aerospace engineering at its London Astrobiology Centre.

By Premji