Shawna Pandya, 32 year old neurosurgeon from Alberta, Canada, will become the third woman of Indian origin to travel to space, following into the foot-steps of her famous predecessors Kalpna Chawla and Sunita Williams. It is indeed a feather in the cap of Indian Americans, Canadians, one of the most educated, hard-working, law abiding and thriving community among recent arrivals on the American continent, making their marks at the highest level, especially in the field of medicine, science and IT where their skill and dedication is much in demand.
Although Shawna was born in Canada, her parents migrated to Canada from Mumbai. Besides being neurosurgeon, she has BSc and MSc in space related studies from the famous Space Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in USA. She is also fluent in French, Spanish and Russian languages, Russian being the most important language for aspiring astronauts, as Russia is the only country at present capable of sending astronauts to orbiting space Station.
She, along with her companion was chosen from 3200 aspiring applicants and will be flying to Russian space station, a joint project with USA, in 2018, making her mark and going down in history for all the right reasons. Let us wish her a great success in her chosen profession.
Kumudini Valambia
By email
