Kalpana Chawla was born in 1962 in Karnal, Haryana, India. She received a Bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in 1982. After graduating, she moved to the United States where she had a successful career at NASA, receiving several honors including the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Following her death in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, several memorial scholarships were established in her name to honor her contributions to space exploration and encourage students pursuing STEM fields.