Recently, news of a 14-year-old girl from Aurangabad getting selected for NASA’s 2021 MSI (Minority Serving Institution) Fellowships Virtual Panel captured headlines.
According to Times Now, the class-10 student, named Diksha Shinde, had submitted a paper titled ‘Questioning the existence of God’ which was rejected twice. She then went on to send a paper on Black Holes in December 2020 which allegedly got accepted by NASA.
Maharashtra | Diksha Shinde, a 14-yr-old girl in Aurangabad, was selected as a panellist on NASA's MSI Fellowships Virtual Panel.
"I wrote a theory on black holes & God. It was accepted by NASA after 3 attempts. They asked me to write articles for their website,"she said (18.08) pic.twitter.com/yxDqApWKWm
— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2021
“I won a research competition organised by International Astronomical Search Collaboration. In that, I provisionally discovered the ‘Main Belt asteroid’,” Diksha said.
On being selected as a panellist for the MSI Fellowships Virtual Panel of NASA, Diksha said, “I accepted the offer and will start working soon. My job involves reviewing proposals submitted by researchers and describing a collaborative approach to conduct research with NASA and understanding the connection between proposed research area and academic discipline pursuit of the students.”
Aurangabad, Maharashtra | 14-yr-old Diksha Shinde was selected as panelist on NASA’s MSI Fellowships Virtual Panel; panel meetings held from July 12-16
She says that she wrote a theory that was accepted by NASA after 3 attempts, she was asked to write articles for their website. pic.twitter.com/JElU0K37TA
— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2021
However, controversy soon stirred online as people started digging into the incident. They found her account on LinkedIn and pictures of her certificate. They accused the entire incident of being a scam, reports Financial Express.
The official MSI Fellowship website states that the candidates must be US nationals/citizens and must hold a bachelor’s degree. Is Diksha Shinde either? @smitaprakash pic.twitter.com/jYs4y5zKIC
— Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 (@ShefVaidya) August 20, 2021
Such a nice certificate made on @canva pic.twitter.com/HKE9gCIzLj
— Sanskar Rao🇮🇳 (@SanskarBarot) August 20, 2021
Name is also not correct for President of “American Astronomical Society” : It is Megan Donahue and her certificate says Megan Donahu
😷🥲— Shivam Gupta (@its_shivamG) August 20, 2021
NASA will never issue substandard certificates like this. The first one has flowers as background and the second one doesn’t even have signatures of the CEO and dept. chair. Absolutely sure the girl herself made both of these pic.twitter.com/CzKLN7BEzZ
— S (@datsIit) August 20, 2021
This is absolute bonkers . I got a screenshot of her research paper from this video by news channel . It says “Bear with me” and “mwuahahaha” 😂😂. https://t.co/bx8eNI66Bn pic.twitter.com/Mz7H1nwbkt
— Tarun Bhargava (@tarunrockon) August 20, 2021
This is most likely a fake story.
There is no designation named CEO, President of NASA.
The guy named James Frederick Bridenstine @JimBridenstine was NASA's administrator in Trump's Gov't.
ANI has split him into two, Jim Bridestine and James Frederick 🤣🤣 https://t.co/cLmLkqcVWr pic.twitter.com/tQFdb2dF7a— Zeeshan Mhaskar (@MhaskarChief) August 19, 2021
As Diksha was being widely trolled online, a New York-based scientist named Jackie Faherty, whose name was mentioned in one of her certificates, offered the little girl help.
I don't know why my name got tied into this but someone has created a scam using a 14 yr old girl in India and her dream of being a scientist. If Diksha really has a passion for Astronomy she can reach out to me and I'll find some legitimate pathways for her passion. https://t.co/VLmtwRBmsg
— Jackie Faherty (@jfaherty) August 20, 2021
She claimed that the girl was probably caught up in the scam.
I have no idea what this is or what department I’m supposed to be in charge of. Also @AAS_Office could never give away that much money.
— Jackie Faherty (@jfaherty) August 20, 2021
Based on Jackie Faherty’s tweet, the girl was probably scammed. And that’s unfortunate!