Sayantan Bhattacharya landed the grand opportunity after he secured the second position in a global contest for schoolchildren on “Building a Habitat in Outer Space”, organised by NASA’s Ames Research Centre.

So, what got the teenager introduced to science? “It all started when my grandmother bought me a telescope when I was a child. Later, I started loving physics and maths,” says Sayantan.

The only son of Ahmedpur Sugar Mill employee Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Sayantan aspires to research on Particle Physics in Oxford or Princeton University.

For mother Pompa Bhattacharya, Sayantan has always shown potential for achieving something big. “He has always been a different child. He would always experiment with spare parts and construct something new out of them,” says Pompa.