Megha Wijewardane
Megha Wijewardane | |
|---|---|
Megha in early 2025 prior to a speech at Debarawewa Presiential College, Sri Lanka | |
| Born | 29 March 2010 Adelaide, Australia |
| Education | Westminster School, Adelaide Flinders University |
| Known for | The youngest ambassador for NASA |
| Parents |
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Megha Mahima Wijewardane is a Sri Lankan-Australian scientific communicator, child prodigy, and the youngest ambassador for NASA's OSIRIS-Rex mission, representing Australia since 2019.
Early life
Megha Wijewardane was born on 29 March 2010 in Adelaide, Australia to two Sri Lankan immigrant parents. He is the son of artist Charith Wijewardane, and former newspaper editor Doshanthri Ranatunge.[1]
Megha excelled at physics and mathematics since a remarkably young age.
In 2017, when he was 7 years old, he won the 2017 NASA Space Apps challenge and did a lecture on the atmosphere of Earth. There, he won the Northrop Grumman Prize while competing with university students and aerospace engineers.[2] In 2018, Megha again was a significant part of NASA's Space Apps challenge. He worked on a solution regarding asteroid Bennu which is at risk of colliding with Earth in the future.[2][3][4][5]
Later in 2018, he participated in the ActInSpace challenge. In that challenge, he became the youngest team leader and youngest entrepreneur in Australia to start a business plan solution for the category science and technology. With Airbus, he took part in a project to find a solution for the identification of ships being used for illegal activities - primarily fishing vessels - that have turned off transponders.[6]
Due to his prior work on Bennu and work with transponders, he was offered NASA ambassadorship for the mission OSIRIS-REx which successfully retrieved a sample from the asteroid in October of 2020.
As an ambassador, the University of Arizona – LPL (Luna and Planetary Laboratory) offered him training in a variety of disciplines and reportedly scored very high on several examinations. In 2019, aged 9, he, in collaboration with several other contestants in NASA's space apps challenge, built a platform to recover people who are highly exposed to natural disasters using NASA live satellite data. There they introduced an app called "Megha Naada" which can warn people before floods occur.[2]
Megha was admitted to Westminster School, Australia. He was later selected to study part time for a physics major at the University of Flinders, at age 12.[7]
Working as an ambassador
He is Australia's only junior NASA ambassador for NASA's mission OSIRIS-REx. Mission OSIRIS-REx is to save Earth from the potential hazard asteroid, Bennu, which is at risk of colliding with Earth in the future.
He got the opportunity to be in the team mapping and conveying an area to execute the mission of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.[7]
As the ambassador for Australia, he is involved in communications for Australia with the mission OSIRIS-REx. He has the opportunity to access any news about the mission first-hand before it goes public and he shares the updated information with the public. Therefore, he participates in space summits, and visits schools, universities, astronomical clubs and events to share information about the mission OSIRIS-REx.[8]
In 2025 he visited Sri Lanka and did a series of lectures on the systems engineering of the NASA space shuttle at various aviation training centers.[9]
Abilities and social services
He is skilled in a variety of sports and plays several instruments.[1]
He has been conducting many lectures in physics, science, mathematics, and astronomy for university students, scientists, and school students. He has a YouTube channel with 32.2 thousand subscribers.[10] In 2020, he had been developing apps for students to learn learn physics, chemistry, and Mathematics.
He has said that once his education is finished, he plans to start an aerospace engineering company.
- ^ a b අවුරුදු 9න් ලෝකය බේරාගැනීමට ගිය පුංචි දරුවා | Megha Mahima Wijewardhana |, 20 May 2020, retrieved 7 April 2023
- ^ a b c inspiredadmin14 (1 December 2019). "S02 : Ep. 05 : Year 4 to NASA – A pathway beyond this world with Megha Wijewardane". Rashan Senanayake. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Megha is reaching for highest stars". PerthNow. 23 May 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- ^ "Megha Wijewardane - Australia's only junior Ambassador to NASA". Latest in the News Sphere | The Morning. 23 September 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2025.
- ^ "The world according to Megha Wijewardane is all about physics". NT News.
- ^ "Megha Wijewardane – NASA Junior Ambassador". eLanka. 4 June 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
- ^ a b ලෝකයේ ලාබාලතම නාසා තානාපති නයිවල දරුවා වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිරිපත් වෙයි|Youngest NASA Ambassador Helps Senura, 18 December 2020, retrieved 7 April 2023
- ^ Megha Wijewardane: NASA Ambassador, 15 August 2019, retrieved 7 April 2023
- ^ 3.5K views · 23 reactions | ** Facebook Live streaming** A Guest Lecture on “Systems engineering of the NASA space shuttle and its implications for traditional air travel.” Speaker: NASA’s youngest Ambassador Megha Wijewardane Date : 01 Aug 2025 Time: 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Vanue: AAC, Colombo Airport, Ratmalana | Asian Aviation Centre (Pvt) Ltd. Retrieved 3 December 2025 – via www.facebook.com.
- ^ 23 May; 2018 – 2:56PMNewsDNARaw (23 May 2018), The world according to Megha Wijewardane is all about physics, retrieved 6 April 2023
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)