Join us for the season closer of Voices of Exchange, featuring Dr. Swati Mohan, NASA aerospace engineer and U.S. Speaker Program ExchangeAlumni, this Thursday, February 10 at 8:00 a.m. ET. Celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science with Dr. Mohan’s journey from Bengaluru, India to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, her viral moment as the lead for the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover landing, and why she is a big proponent of encouraging other women to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

Dr. Swati Mohan:

I did a single session for them the inaugural session and it was a, basically a 45-minute talk or so, uh, where I kind of talked about my life journey and how I went, you know, I was born in India and how I came to the U.S. and, uh, and my career path. And then there was time for question and answers that they took from, uh, multiple different places. Uh, it was co-streamed throughout the different embassies in India simultaneously. So in Delhi, in Mumbai, uh, Chennai and a couple of other places. So I think the whole event lasted for about an hour, hour and a half, um, and the, uh, audience was primarily Indians in India, I believe, but there were also some, uh, you know, dispersed from the U.S., uh, through their connection with me or through the State Department.

You know, it was really interesting. And the... I think because of the pandemic and we had to do this in the middle of the, the pandemic, it was all virtual, which gave it the benefit of being able to be, you know, simultaneously broadcast across multiple different centers. But then also the downside where I couldn't actually go to India and I couldn't actually see, you know, the, the people asking the questions. So there's kind of pros and cons of, of having to do it over a Zoom platform.

The question that I loved best was at the very end of, "What do you miss about, about India?" And it's, um, been so long since I've actually been able to go. We were actually planning to go, um, this year after landing day, 'cause I finally have vacation that I can take, you know, in a big chunk. Um, and the, the COVID pandemic has just prevented that. So that kind of sparked this, "Oh, I miss so much about India. You know, the street food and the culture, and the festivals and visiting my family there 'cause I still have a, a lot of family that I haven't seen in years just 'cause we haven't been able to make it over.

My family primarily lives in Karnataka. Um, I was born in a city called Bengaluru. Uh, so I still have a lot of family there specifically and actually my husband's side of the family. Um, hi- they're also from Bengaluru, so when we go there, we, that's kind of our, our home base and we ha- feel like we're related to half the city. Um, but I, I have some family also spread out a few in, in North India and in, in Tamil Nadu, but primarily in, in Bangalore. Uh, how many times have I been able to go back? It varies over the, the course of my lifetime. You know, when we first came to this country, uh, I was only one and um, my parents couldn't afford to go back very often. You know, plane tickets back then were, were super expensive and they were still students and trying to pay for a family afford to, to go over to India, it was a, it was a big ordeal. So we went every five years or so.

And then, um, around the time that I graduated from high school and during undergraduate and graduate school, then it was a, a bit more frequent. You know, we were comfortable then and uh, we were able, I was able to travel by myself and um, we went every two years or so. Actually right after my college graduation, I went and lived in India with my grandparents for two months. And you know, I took them all over South India to, to travel and to see the different temples, which was a very, um, unique experience that I'm, I'm glad I got to do with them before my grandmother passed. Uh, in the recent years, it has not been too often. Um, I have two young kids, so to try to work it with school schedules is, is very di- very difficult. So we've only gone once, I think, in the last 10 years, unfortunately.

So someone must have asked me when I was really little, "What are you gonna be when you grow up?" And I said, "Uh, I'm gonna be a pediatrician." 'Cause I just came back from the doctor's office, I needed help and you could tell what they did. They made you feel better. So that's a noble profession. So I had gotten it stuck in my mind of, "I said it. So that's what I told everyone, that's my goal. So you have to go do that goal." And I did everything from, like, candy striping and volunteering at the hospital to shadowing my aunt, you know, during her rounds, to taking anatomy. Um, and it took me a long time to realize that "Yeah, I could do it and I like the idea of it, but it just didn't, it wasn't for me." Like the, um, smell of the formaldehyde from the dissections and like, I was not good with my hands to be able to do the dissections. The memorization of just learning the parts of the cell, like it took me forever to, to memorize that 'cause it didn't come easily.

Whereas the physics, you know, the first day of class they're like, "Okay, F equals MA. That's all you're gonna learn this whole semester." And I was like, "Oh, okay, I get it." And then as long as you get that, you can do everything and you don't have to memorize. You don't need your books. Like that's, that's all you need. And just kind of fit how my brain thinks a lot better than the uh, than the medicine did. So, uh, I gave that up, but I did end up marrying a pediatrician. So I see some of it vicariously (laughs) through him.

I happened to be watching Star Trek with my parents and my dad was actually a pretty big science fiction fan. And uh, my first episode was, I was really little like seven or eight maybe, probably too young to really understand what the plot line of the story was. But I remember the visual impact of that first episode that I saw where the, the spacecraft gets kicked out into the middle of nowhere. And then they had shown the scenes of, you know, where they were and it was just so beautiful, like the purples and the blues and it was all like flowing. I was like, "Wow, is that what space is like? That's so cool. Um, I wanna go there, like I wanna be on the, the bridge of a ship that goes to travel in space." Uh, and that just kind of got me hooked first into science fiction, you know, watching things like Star Trek or Star Wars.

Uh, but then, it got me more curious about what real space was like. So I would start checking out books on, um, on the planets at first like in the solar system and the moons and then kind of dabbling in, uh, the cosmology and astrophysics part of it. Like how did the universe form? And these were the books that I was checking out from the library for my fun reading, you know, uh, in my, in my spare time. But that was always my hobby. I didn't, I didn't translate that over to, to having a career 'cause it was very hard for me to understand what that meant in terms of a, a career. It wasn't until I was a junior in high school and I had a really great physics teacher that I, that I was able to understand what it meant to, to do engineering, like what, what it actually was to build these things for a purpose to go out. And that was when I was actually confronted with it, "Oh, maybe I can make this a career. Oh this is what NASA actually does or what it means to, you know, build a, a spacecraft to go to somewhere else."

And that's, that was kind of my right angle of, "Okay, maybe I should go pursue this and figure out where my place in this space industry would be." I still love Star Trek.

I don't know if I can say that there were others that influenced my decision directly, but I will say I had, um, an aunt who was, uh, really smart, like PhD in computer science and was working in the field. So, uh, she, along with, you know, my parents who were both in the STEM field and in more engineering-ish, um, fields, they, they served as examples, right, of, "You can be a woman going into this field. That's, you know, that is something that our family has some examples for. So you should go and, and try that." It didn't, um, it wasn't a direct correlation, but I think just having them in those fields and working in those fields helped to open the door as a possibility.

And then once I, I made the decision to go into engineering. Um, there were a lot of teachers, uh, professors at undergraduate and, um, my graduate advisor, especially and, and my PhD that were, uh, super influential in helping me define my path and where I can succeed and helping me along that journey.

* So I, I'm a big proponent of encouraging women to go into STEM. And I think part of it, um, stems from my experience of, uh, going through the engineering field and, you know, in undergrad, I was one of 10 women in my, in my graduating class of about 100, 115, right, so it was about 10% and you could, you know, you felt the difference, right? Like you could feel that you were in the minority. I had the great fortune when I went to grad school. Um, in my lab, there happened to be a confluence of, of women that just joined at the same time. So for the first time, there was like five women out of a, a graduating class of like seven. And that was the first time that I felt, "Oh, this is what it could feel like if it was actually, you know, equalized." Like the conversations in the lab were just different and suddenly it, it didn't make engineering one-sided because it wasn't all just about, uh, just about the work or, or that.

Like it became more overarching and we were able to trade, you know, life's experiences that were similar and encouraging. Um, and it kind of just made me flip the switches to understand what it could be like if it was fully equalized across the board. Um, and that kind, that spurs it for me. Right? Like I had, um, we had an admin in graduate school who was really, uh, invested in like seeding us all into the same cubicle. Right? And while I was there, I was like, "Oh, that's silly. Why is she, why is she doing that? That doesn't matter." Um, and it wasn't until, you know, maybe six months in that I realized why that was. Because no matter how, how much, um, we say, when you're in the minority, it does somewhat stifle your, um, willingness to put yourself out there and fully be yourself, no matter what type of minority you are in, uh, in that field. And finally being able to be in my field and not feeling like I was the minority kind of opened it up for, for all of us. And we were able to be more free with each other and discuss more and had more communications and more, more open.

Um, and being able to bring that feeling across the board, whether it's for minorities now in women or, uh, race, or, you know, gender preferences, like the more you can equalize the fields so more people are able to be free to be themselves, you open up that potential and you open up communication. And, uh, by doing that, you're able to listen to everyone. You're able to hear these ideas. And that's really when you're utilizing the, the group at a maximum. And that's when you're really unlocking the potential and, uh, able to leverage that, to solve these hard problems, right, to, to solve what needs to be worked on, to have the creativity to think outside the box, to, um, to solve these big problems.

I, I feel like the best option is to give them a glimpse of what it's like. Like even my daughter who, who like, likes science when we do it at home, she comes back. She's like, "Oh, I don't think into science, it's kind of boring at school." And that's because they, they focus on what they can kind of teach at that age. But you know, the stuff that I do, you need so much math to understand what it is and how to do it, that you don't get that until years down the road, right, but if you lose the kid already in fourth grade or in fifth grade, they won't even get to that point to learn about that career.

So, um, being able to show them examples, right, of people who are in the field, who are doing that end thing and what it kind of means in layman's terms will at least give them something to reach for, even if they don't necessarily understand, uh, how to do it at this age, at least it'll give them something to hook onto for their imaginations, to keep them going to the next, to the next level until you can, uh, interest them. And then you gotta find what, what hooks the kid, right? Every kid is different. And just because you like one aspect of science doesn't necessarily mean you like the other aspects of science.

Like, I like oceanography and like, Marine biology, like I could care less about that. Like I don't, you know, like being in the ocean, I don't like animals or touching animals to say, but some kids are really into that and they're not into space. Right? So, but if you just focus on, like, a blanket only this much of it for any particular kid, you can't inspire their passion and get them interested in -- augment what they're already kind of biased into and, and use that as a, um, hook to, to increase their interest.

 So the day of landing, the, because of the whole COVID, they didn't actually let any of the photographers or videographers in mission control. So they just had this like tiny camera that was mounted to the top of my, my station. And it was just this tiny little, like less than hand size camera. So it, it was kind of easy to forget that that was there for the most part. And I kind of went through what I had to say. Um, I was surprised at how big it got. I mean, I, I knew that, you know, the internet could do that for certain people, um, but it's always a hit or miss. Like just because you have a certain role or, uh, a certain position doesn't necessarily mean that it's gonna be you, right? Like the, the guy who was the face of the curiosity landing, I mean he had some aspect, but it didn't necessarily go viral for him.

Uh, the one that it did go viral for it was a guy like sitting two rows back because he had a Mohawk, you know, and that was new and interesting for the internet to see at, at, uh, a JPL mission control room. So it was quite a surprise that it went that, um, that viral. And I, I only watched the video feed of the landing, um, just a month ago when we had our, our six month landing-versary. And that was the first time I actually saw it. I had kind of, still was in a little bit of trauma and hadn't been able to watch the whole thing through. Um, but that was when I realized, like, how much it was focused on me 'cause that's not what it felt like for me in mission control. I had, um, so many people like talking into my ear, uh, constantly calling out exactly what had happened that I was repeating on, you know, on the, the mission commentary side that, um, it, there were, there were so many voices in my head that were going on that it, it definitely didn't feel like a one man show, but the way they, uh, they cut it in that sense, it, it sounded very much like a, a one person show, which it, it was not.

It was a huge team effort to, to get to that point, um, not just with the people on the phone, but there were so many people on WebEx and people that were, matter most with that. It was a, yeah, for me, it was a, a huge team effort with everybody in my ear and we were all kind of talking at, at once.

So, um, this time we had a lot of school who could watch. It was like in, in the school day, they all the, the kids could, um, be aware. And then, uh, I don't know, with the whole #MeToo Movement going on and with, uh, Vice President Harris also with the, the Indian diaspora kind of was a confluence of events I think that led to the spotlight.

And so leadership and teamwork have, are two big aspects. Um, let me tackle the teamwork first. Uh,-- teamwork is absolutely critical for, for everything we do. Because everything we do is so complicated, so much scope that there's, there's no way you could do it without a really excellent technically savvy, tight knit team. And not just, uh, a team at JPL, like for Perseverance, we had team members all across NASA. I mean, for the entry, descent and landing, the core team was Ames, NASA Ames NASA, which was in Northern California, NASA Langley in Virginia, people at NASA Johnson Space Center in Texas, as well as the, the crew here at NASA JPL. And that was the core team because that's, uh, you needed all of those different expertise to make entry, descent and landing work.

So I think from the very start, when you come to JPL, you realize that everything you do is in these huge teams and, and how to work that in. And, you know, you have sub teams and teams, and, uh, you really rely on everyone to do their part, right? Like the team is only as good as it's, it's weakest link and you really rely on everyone, um, to, to get their part done so that you can kind of build from, from there. For the leadership aspect of it, um, it is something that NASA values, because as I said, when you have these large teams, um, keeping them focused is a real challenge, right? Like you're, you have this like massive barge heading down a river and it's up to the, the leader in the front to make sure that it doesn't, uh, hit anything and you still stay on course.

Yes. Uh, there was a time after, whe- when I was getting ready to graduate from my PhD that I was considering multiple options. And one of the options that I was considering was to go into academia, you know, to, to be a professor and to do research, uh, in the space field and, uh, versus industry. And I, I kind of knew I could do industry because I had worked at JPL before going to grad school. So I, I kind of knew what that was like. Uh, but the, the academia, I faced a lot of imposter syndrome of not being sure whether I, I could do it or not, or not being sure whether I'd be good at it. Um, so I, I doubted myself a lot for that and probably talked myself out of that even, you know, you know, which I don't know if it's a good or bad thing 'cause I'm, I'm very happy where I am now. But, uh, a little, a bit of a regret that I, um, talked myself out of trying.

So I never even applied to any, um, positions 'cause I kind of convinced myself that, "No, no you better off going here 'cause you're better at that" as opposed to, to even trying to, you know, to see if I would've, could have done it.

Uh, and just that little effort of trying and leaving it to them to decide, um, didn't cost you that position, uh, in the future.