Space Science Personal Statement

When I was in the fifth grade, I heard about the unfortunate disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia and the demise of the first Indian Female Astronaut Kalpana Chawla and the other crew members in it. The media coverage of that incidence had a huge impact upon me. I was inspired to read and collect newspaper cuttings of issues related to space science and technology. Around the same time, I went to a school trip to the Nehru Planetarium and was bedazzled by the view of night sky. When I was in the 6th grade, my English teacher asked us to narrate a few lines on the topic “My ambition in life”. While the other students wanted to become doctors, engineers or lawyers, I proudly told everyone that I wanted to become a space scientist. I always wanted to look at the night sky, through a telescope, but before that wish could have come true I got the opportunity to look past a microscope, looking at the magnificent details of an onion peel. It was like having a Bird’s-eye view over the entire universe, a view that probably only the creator, if any, might get to witness. I was very much overwhelmed with that observation. The interest in stars sooner got translated

I took up Life Sciences (Botany, Chemistry and Zoology) as my major during undergraduate school studies, from one of the best science college of India. I got exposed to a generalized aspect of all the major sub-fields of biology, enabling me to determine for myself the one I would like to specialize in. During the course of my undergraduate school studies, Biotechnology, Genetics and Molecular biology were the courses that appealed to me the most. I enjoyed learning through the first-hand experience gained during practical sessions much more than that through the theory classes. It led me to plan a career based upon scientific