Thirty-year-old Dr. Anshu Kumari, who lost her mother due to cancer in 2008, has made Bihar proud after getting into National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the postdoctoral programme. She has been awarded this fellowship to work on a proposed space-based solar-dedicated mission.
Dr. Anshu is a resident of Raxaul town in East Champaran district and daughter of Chandrama Singh, a retired professor from Khemchand Tarachand College (KCTC). She completed her 12th from Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya, Piprakothi, Motihari in 2008 and went to do her B. Tech from Rajasthan College of Engineering for Women (RCEW) in 2012.
“It is a proud moment for me that my daughter has been selected by NASA for the space programme. After the death of her mother, It was really difficult for me to look after my children. Only I know how much hard work Anshu has done for her career. I don’t have a son and I never regret this because if you have daughters like Anshu, you don’t need one. If her mother would have been alive, she would have been really happy. I pray that every father should get a daughter like Anshu,” Dr. Chandrama Singh told The Hindu over phone from Raxaul.
Dr. Chandrama was zoology professor in KCTC college and retired in August 2022. Dr. Anshu is his younger daughter .
After B. Tech in Electronics & Communications, Dr. Anshu qualified the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) in 2013, and from 2014 to 2020 engaged herself in completing M. Tech and integrated PhD. She did her PhD at the Gauribidanur Radio Observatory of the IIA, Bengaluru under the guidance of Prof. R Ramesh and Dr. C. Kathiravan on astronomical instrumentation and solar physics.
“She is probably the first girl from Bihar who has reached this level and made us feel proud not only of the State but the entire district of East Champaran and Siwan, our ancestor’s house. She has given a different identity to our State and I am sure that in days to come, he will be having a bright future,” Dr. Chandrama stressed.
From January 2021 to December 2022, she worked as Postdoctoral researcher at University of Helsinki, Finland.
Dr. Anshu has also won several young scientist awards by reputed engineering institutes of the country. She was awarded the Young scientist Award 2021 by Madhawi-Shyam Educational Trust, and the visiting scholar grant at Royal Observatory of Belgium in 2020. IIT Roorkee and IIT Indore have also given her young scientist awards.
Dr. Anshu’s husband Dr Ashutosh Kumar Singh is a scientist at Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS) in Bengaluru.
While speaking to The Hindu over phone from Washington DC, Dr. Anshu said, “I have joined the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre (NASA GSFC) as a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow from 1st Feb 2023. I have been awarded this fellowship to work on a proposed space-based solar-dedicated mission. I specialise in designing ground-based radio instruments for solar observation and space weather monitoring. During the course of the next three years, I will be studying the sun and its activities, basically the solar eruptions.”
Asked about the support of the family after the death of her mother Sabita Kumari was also a block education officer in Raxaul, Dr. Anshu said, “My family always supported me and never disturbed me during the academic activities. My father and my elder sister were like walls for me. I never thought that I would be getting the opportunity to work with NASA.”
