AMN
An Indian-origin doctor currently based in Canada has been shortlisted by NASA for its 2018 space mission under the Citizen Science Astronaut (CSA) programme. If everything goes as per plan, 32-year old Dr Shawna Pandya may join the league of Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
Dr Pandya, who was born in Canada, is a general physician with the Alberta University Hospital. She has her roots in Mumbai, where her grandmother currently lives. Pandya, who is in Mumbai holding talks with medical professionals, was shortlisted after securing top score in the CSA programme.
Besides having passion to become a doctor and astronaut since her childhood, she is also an opera singer, an international champion in taekwon-do and has also done her training in Muay Thai with a Navy SEAL, as per her bio-data.
Dr Pandya completed her B.Sc in neuroscience at University of Alberta, followed by M.Sc. in space sciences at International Space University. Thereafter, she did her MD in Medicine from University of Alberta. She then applied for medical school as well as for the space programme at the same time.
More about SHAWNA PANDYA
Physician, Scientist-Astronaut Candidate, and Motivational Speaker in Canada
Scientist-astronaut candidate with Projects PoSSUM & PHEnOM. Prime crew, Project Poseidon. Physician, motivational speaker, martial artist, musician.
Complete scientist-astronaut training, pilot a plane, fly in zero-g, co-found a company based on a challenge to positively impact 1 billion people, perform brain surgery, work on a robot that performs brain surgery, assist in pediatric cardiac surgery (and hold a beating human heart in my hands!), author a book chapter on space technologies used in every-day medicine, interview medical experts, brainstorm with Nobel Laureates and astronauts, go to medical school, go to space school, walk the runway, sang opera, sing the national anthem in front of 10,000+ people, compose music, scuba-dive, parachute, spar (and win) as a black belt in international taekwon-do competition, meditate in silence for 10 days in the forests of Quebec, train Muay Thai alongside a Navy SEAL, complete 21,000 sit-ups in 30 days…and every day just keeps getting better and better.
EDUCATION
University of Alberta
International Space University