- Luckily I found, you know, an opportunity to work on Aurora and I took that, I grabbed that, and then, yeah. And so here I am, and since being a student from space physics background, it has always been, you know, aspiration, a dream to be a part of NASA. And I think I'm very glad, and I'm fortunate. I've been, as I said, I've been at the right place at the right time, which helped me to be a part of this amazing organization.

- [Announcer] You're listening to Further Together, the ORAU podcast. Join Michael Holtz and his guests for conversations about all things ORAU. They'll talk about ORAU story history, our impact on an ever-changing world, our innovative scientific and technical solutions for our customers and our commitment to the communities where we do business. Welcome to Further Together, the ORAU podcast.

- Welcome to Further Together, the ORAU podcast. As ever, it's me your host, Michael Holtz, in the communications department at ORAU, and I'm really excited to be kicking off a series of podcast interviews with some of our NASA postdoctoral program fellows. And the first one on my lineup, I'm so excited, is Shipra Sinha. And Shipra, I just wanna say, first of all, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. I know you're in India, and you're having to stay up late to have this conversation, so I really, really appreciate you doing that for me.

- Thank you so much. Pleasure, pleasure to have a conversation with you today.

- Awesome. So I wanna talk about your fellowship and I really, I guess wanna get started with, tell me about your current role as a NASA NPP fellow, and then just a little bit about your background. Obviously you're in India, so you're from India. And how did you get to the NASA NPP program?

- Right, so my journey was very interesting, and I would also say that I was at the right place in the right time, to be honest. So I was an intern at NASA for three months via this COSTA program, and I was there last year from December to March this year. So three months, yeah. I was under David Sibeck. And at that time I met a few people. I was lucky enough to collaborate with many new scientists there to learn what they're working on. I participated in the poster session, which was held at that time. So quite a few events took place because that was also a time of New Year and Christmas. So some of the gatherings where I could meet people formally, informally, you know, and talk about work. So it gave me a lot of opportunity to talk to people to understand what they're working on to find common interests. And that's when I met Dr. Mei-Ching Fok, who is my NPP supervisor. And so, yeah, so my work up until now, like I have recently defended my thesis. In September, I submitted before going to NASA and in September I defended my thesis. So by the time I had mostly worked on data analysis of satellites that are run by NASA and Noah and all those. And my work is about auroras or substorms and auroras, and I mostly use the dataset of the satellites and ground based instruments to perform even based analysis. When I met Dr. Mei-Ching Fok, there were some drawbacks in data analysis and satellite data analysis because, you know, we don't have the satellite information at all times in all locations. So for those period of time, simulation is something that really helps. So she worked on similar topic, but on the simulation part. So we kind of collaborated to bring together data analysis and simulation so that we can have a complete picture of any even that we are studying, right? So that was the kind of drawing proposal that I wrote this year in March and it got selected, which I'm very happy about. And I can't wait to start my journey at NASA. I'll be joining January next year, 29 January is my drawing date, yeah.

- Awesome. That's so exciting. So Shipra, I know you talked about studying auroras, and I know most people in the West are familiar with, most familiar with probably the aurora borealis, right? In the North Pole. Are there other of those phenomenon elsewhere that people are not as familiar with or?

- So these auroras generally happen at the poles, and we have two poles, North Pole and South Pole, of course. So the northern polar lights are called aurora borealis and the southern polar lights are called aurora australis. And they both occur simultaneously. But the only drawback is for measuring the South Pole auroras, is that most of the area is in the Antarctic region, which is, you know, harder to reach out and to take measurements off. So we study Aurora borealis in a more detailed way because we have the liberty to, you know, install instruments, take measurements, which is a bit difficult in Antarctica. So yeah. They're a simultaneous process, like every time it happens in North Pole it also happens in South Pole. I won't say it's extremely symmetric, but it's a phenomena that occurs in both the poles. Yeah.

- I'm guessing that you can, based on data from the North Pole where you can surmise data from the South Pole since they have simultaneously-

- To some extent, yes. And we have polar orbiting satellites also, and we have images installed in those satellites, which can also take pictures of both the poles, so that way also we can have data sets, but then again, there's a drawback of time and position in satellite measure always. Yeah.

- Sure, sure. Shipra, has science always been an interest for you, you know, from childhood, from school? Where did that interest come from?

- So, yeah, I think physics was something that I've always been interested in since the very beginning. I won't say I was very clear on this part that I have to do particularly this type of science, but it was always physics that really amazed me and, you know, inspired me to understand what's going on in the universe. And I think still now, also my plans are more short term than are very long-term plans. And what I do is I look forward to do things that interest me so that I can give my hundred percent rather than doing it for, just for the sake of doing it. So it's so progressed with time that, you know, I chose a topic of my interest and then luckily I found, you know, an opportunity to work on aurora and I took that, I grabbed that and then, yeah. And so here I am. And since being a student from space physics background, it has always been, you know, aspiration, a dream to be a part of NASA. I think I'm very glad, and I'm fortunate. I've been, as I said, I've been at the right place at the right time, which helped me to be a part of this amazing organization.

- That's amazing. One of my questions is, I think you've already answered, is you haven't started your fellowship officially, but being an intern for NASA obviously had a huge impact on your career because you now have the NASA fellowship to look forward to.

- Right, right. I think a lot because, you know, once you're inside that organization, you get a deeper insight of what people are working at currently and then what they're looking for to work on, you know, the topic of current interest, the missions that they're working on. You get a deeper insight of it, and then that helps you writing the proposal, reaching out to people to work with. So that's definitely a, you know, I would say it had a very big hand in my career being at NASA.

- Absolutely. Shipra, have there been significant obstacles that you've overcome to get to where you're as a scientist, as a student?

- Oh, definitely. I think whatever career path you choose, whatever path you choose in life, there would be obstacles. There were obstacles, You know, people are not always supportive. Sometimes they're also doubtful of what you're doing. Why are you doing. There are questions, there are obstacles, but I think the only thing that keeps me going is I know I have been working hard for it, and I know that if I stop, everything will end. If I keep on going, I'll reach somewhere and yeah, I think there were 10 people who didn't trust me, but there was one person who can trust me and then that's enough. If there's one person to tell you that you can do it and to rebuild your confidence, I think sometimes that's enough. That's all you need. And I have been fortunate enough to have found that one person every time I have a self-doubt, so, yeah. Right.

- So let's talk about that because I know mentorship and having that person who believes in you is so important.

- Definitely.

- So if you can talk about that specific person or just, you know, how, obviously you've talked a little bit about how that relationship has impacted your drive and your determination, like, I'm doing this because, you know, you know you're good enough and you have someone who believes in you.

- Right. And definitely, I have a handful of people who have always believed in me. And I would say my constant support from the very beginning has always been my mom. Like she's the one who has always pushed me during the times when I had like lost confidence or I'm very, you know, disappointed or like discouraged to make the people in my career who have, you know, not been very supportive of me. My mom was always there. My supervisor is also a person who I would say has, you know, like taken one extra step for me that, you know, maybe not every guide would take. And I was fortunate enough to have not one, but two supervisors. So one of my first supervisor, he retired, and then I was transferred to another one. But they both have guided me officially and unofficially. And another person that I would wanna name is David Sibeck. David Sibeck. I dunno, I don't have enough words to express how grateful I'm to him. Like he's one of a kind, like, I haven't met a person who is so student friendly, so kind and so supportive to students, and I think he has brought a big difference in my career, that's for sure.

- Awesome.

- He sounds amazing and again, like you found the right person at the right time.

- Right, right.

- With everything Shipra, will you do your fellowship from India? Will you come to the States?

- Yeah, I'll be coming in January next year.

- Okay. Did you, and I'm sorry, did you do your internship in the United States as well?

- Right, yes.

- I want to get to... You're from India. You grew up in India. Is there cultural, getting used to cultural changes and that sort of thing when you're in the United States?

- So there were a few things that was different for me. I won't say that it was a cultural shock, but it was different. But you know, I was fortunate to have met some amazing people in United States, right from my supervisor to my landlord, my landlord Paul. He was so amazing. Like he helped me with every small and like from getting a sim card to my social security number. Everything, he helped out. Also, I handful of Indian friends, post docs in NASA at Goddard itself, and they were there when I was an intern, so I never felt like I'm away from home because they were around me. Like, I would like to name some like Nithin, he's also a postdoc at Goddard, Risushi, and then some of the interns like Puja and Kokeesh. So they were there, and we were a bunch of, I think seven to eight Indians. So I never like from away home to be honest. Goes by without complaining.

- So you sort of had your little family, your-

- I did, I did. It was festive time when I was there. It was Christmas, it was New Year, so I was hanging around with my friends, enjoying the festive season. So it was pleasant; it was amazing. My stay for three months in Maryland was one of the best I would say.

- Wonderful, wonderful. I know collaboration plays a big part in the scientific process, and you touched on this a little bit because of your internship, but talk about the role of collaboration as you look ahead to the start of your fellowship and how important that's gonna be for the research that you'll be doing.

- Right. I think I am in general a peoples person, first of all. And second of all, I strongly believe in collaborating minds towards tackling one problem. Because, you know, we researchers sometimes when we think about a problem, we are very unidirectional and we think in certain way and we, you know, it so happens that when you talk to someone about your problem and their simple questions can give you insights of the points that you were ignoring while having a unidirectional thought. So when two, three minds work together or more work together, you tackle a problem in a multi-directional way, which definitely, you know, ease... It eases your, I won't say ease, but it definitely makes it more wide. Your thought area, makes it more wide. You can have strong discussions. They can tell you where you are not thinking it thoroughly or where you're thinking it wrong. Because when you do self-analysis, you just kind of get lost in your thought, and you not understand your own mistakes or where you're lacking. So also when you're working with people who has more experience in your field, you definitely get to know, and they give you a better insight. They're more experienced people. So, you know, a group of people having different areas of researchers always helps in better in tackling a problem. And I really feel, and I feel like I'm a team player, so I like to work in collaboration.

- Shipra, there are gonna be young women listening to this podcast, young researchers up and coming following in your footsteps. What do you say to the people who are coming after you?

- So first of all, I would say that you need to have confidence in you. You need to believe in yourself before anyone can believe in you. You need to know that you can do it. And it's not just for women, it's for everyone. For women, there's, I would agree that there are a few extra efforts that we have to take. We have to also fight the society and patriarchy to, you know, to prove ourselves. But find people who motivates you and who you know, shares their positivity with you. Don't pay attention to people who pulls you down. Like you will always find both kind of people. It's up to you what you choose to listen and what you choose to just neglect. So I think staying positive, staying motivated and having confidence are the key points to be successful or to keep going in life in any area. Not just-

- Find the people who are gonna keep you lifted up as opposed to beating you down, so to speak.

- And be that for someone as well.

- Yeah, that's a great point, right? You have to, you know, you have to lift others up as you're going along.

- Right, right.

- Last question for you, Shipra. What brings you joy?

- What brings me joy? Okay. So there are many things. First of all, good food.

- Oh, excellent.

- Happy faces, positive minds.

- Okay.

- And I think good scientific results.

- Awesome, okay.

- Yeah. When you work on something and you get a good result, it definitely brings a lot of joy.

- It means the work was worth it, right?

- Yeah.

- I love that. Shipra, I would love at some point, you know, when you're a year or so into your fellowship, to have this conversation again and just see where you and talk about the progress that you've made. So I hope we can do this again.

- Definitely; more than happy to do that. It was lovely having a conversation with you. I hope this would've continued for more time, but I know there are people in line, so-

- I appreciate your time tonight and thank you again for staying up late for me. I really appreciate it. I look forward to seeing you again soon.

- Pleasure is mine Michael.

- Alright. Thank you.

- [Announcer] Thank you for listening to Further Together, the ORAU podcast. To learn more about any of the topics discussed by our experts, visit www.orau.org. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn @ORAU and on Instagram @ORAUTOGETHER. If you like Further Together, the ORAU podcast, we would appreciate you giving us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews will help more people find the podcast.