Miss. Shweta Kulkarni, born in 1995, has completed her school education at Pusad, (Dist. Yavatmal), Amravati and Pune. A product of Adarsh Prathamik School Amravati and Akshar Nandan School, Shweta believes passionate following of the aim rather than the routine competitive spirit. She has chosen the field of astronomy as her career after completing HSC. She is pursuing her education in astronomy through the University of Central Lancashire, UK. 

She has completed online courses from various international institutions as follows: 

1. “University Certificate of Astronomy” from the University of Central Lancashire 
2. “University Certificate of Cosmology” from the University of Central Lancashire 
3. “University Certificate of Sun, Earth and Climate” from the University of Central Lancashire 
4. Distinction Certificate in the course, "From the Big Bang to Dark Energy" from the University of Tokyo, Japan Distinction Certificate in the course, 
5. "Astronomy: Discovering the Universe" from the Curtin University, Australia 

She also has completed the following courses in attendance: 

1. Distinction Certificate in the course, “100 hours Astronomy” from MP Birla Institute of Fundamental Research, India. 

2. “Women Startup Program 2018” NSRCEL, IIM Banaglore, India. S

hweta is passionate about astronomy and is the source of knowledge and inspiration for Astron-SHK Trust (Reg. No. E/35001201/2001) – an organisation working for the popularisation of astronomy. She has been handling this organisation from the age of 16 and became CEO at the age of 18 in 2013. Shweta has dedicated her life to astronomy and aspires to disseminate knowledge of astronomy to the maximum number of people at the international level. She has conducted more than 100 programs of stargazing, presentations, model making, school workshops and exposure visits etc. and has delivered lectures on various topics of astronomy. Shweta is also director of “AstronEra” (AEII Pvt. Ltd. CIN) which is the world’s first astronomy dedicated eLearning platform. 

Through her journey, Shweta has received support and guidance from Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, Dr Jayant Naralikar, Dr Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Prof. Gowind Swaroop, India’s former president Hon. Smt Pratibhatai Patil etc. 

Shweta has mastered the art of film making and film production, right from the scripting till editing in the high-end software, “Adobe Premiere Pro”. She has conceived more than 100 films of various genres. She has received a grant from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for the project “Astronomy for the Beginners” to produce Astronomical videos. She has also received a grant from the Tribal Development Department, Government of Maharashtra. 

She was one of the two participants who were chosen to attend the International Astronomical Youth Camp (2016) in England. After graduating from “Women’s Startup Program 2018” of NSRCEL, Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore (IIMB), Shweta was incubated by InFED, Indian Institute of Management, Nagpur (IIMN) as one of the top 100 women entrepreneurs of India in 2018. On 12th October 2018, she was also awarded the fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society of England. She was selected as the delegate to visit Israel for an ecosystem immersion and to develop business partnerships in 2019. 

Shweta is a part of the consultant’s advisory group of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India. Shweta is also a member of Space Advisory Council. Her astronomy outreach efforts for the tribal community were acknowledged by the IAU in 2019 as the most innovative in the “100 hours of astronomy” initiative. She is featured in amongst the 1 million influential women in STEM across the globe. Shweta is also a member of the Maharashtra STEM Education council of Women’s Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries. 

She is also inclined towards creative art forms, literature, music and photography. She has participated in 3rd Colombo international theatre festival in the capacity of an actress.