Sridhar Kamble from Tiravade village in Kolhapur was selected on the basis of 'feedback' sent by him on the NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab's scientists' findings on "evolution of Galaxy".
Impressed by Sridhar's theory on Galaxy evolution, he said from Kolhapur, 83-year-old former NASA scientist R V Bhosle, gave necessary guidance in writing his feedback.
Bhosle is currently honorary professor at Shivaji University in Kolhapur.
"My godfather is Bhosle as he discovered my potential and this will help me fulfil my ambitions to study galaxy evolution, high energy physics, astrophysics and astronomy," Sridhar said.
"As part of the feedback programme I received USD 10,000 from NASA and I will be getting assistance from them also for studying in Colarado University (to which they have recommended him) from the third year in my four-year undergraduation course," he said.
"I was really lucky that I could skip all the usual entrance exams like SAT as NASA recommended my name to the University directly," Sridhar, who has given his HSc exams this year, said.
However, Sridhar, son of small landholding farmer Dhulappa Kamble and Kanchan Kamble, will have to arrange travel expenses and fee for the first two years. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has, meanwhile, assured assistance to him for higher studies.
The small-town boy's interest in astronomy goes back to his childhood and later he became a member of Tent Club Planetarium in Kolhapur.
In 2004, he received the young scientist award from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. His father, a small farmer and also a farm labourer, grows wheat, rice and sugarcane and earns just enough to sustain their livelihood.
