Megha Wijewardane

Megha Wijewardane
Megha talking about the Artemis Program in 2026
Born	(2010-03-29) 29 March 2010 Adelaide, Australia
Education	Woodcroft College, Adelaide Westminster School, Adelaide Dara School, Adelaide Hamilton Secondary College Flinders University
Known for	The youngest ambassador for NASA
Parents	Charith Wijewardane (father) Doshanthri Ranatunge (mother)

Megha Mahima Wijewardane is an Australian scientific communicator, child prodigy, and the youngest ambassador for NASA's OSIRIS-Rex mission, representing Australia since 2019.

Early life and education

Megha Wijewardane was born on 29 March 2010 in Adelaide, Australia to two Sri Lankan immigrant parents. He is the son of artist Charith Wijewardane, and former newspaper editor Doshanthri Ranatunge.

Megha excelled at physics and mathematics since a remarkably young age.

In 2017, when he was 7 years old, he won the 2017 Northrop Grumman Prize at NASA's space apps challenge, competing with university students and aerospace engineers. In 2018, Megha again was a significant part of NASA's Space Apps challenge. He worked on a solution regarding asteroid Bennu which is at risk of colliding with Earth in the future.

Later in 2018, he participated in the ActInSpace challenge. In that challenge, he became the youngest team leader and youngest entrepreneur in Australia to start a business plan solution for the category science and technology. With Airbus, he took part in a project to find a solution for the identification of ships being used for illegal activities - primarily fishing vessels - that have turned off transponders.

Due to his prior work on Bennu and work with transponders, he was offered NASA ambassadorship for the mission OSIRIS-REx which successfully retrieved a sample from the asteroid in October of 2020, becoming the youngest person in that role in the world, and the only in Australia.

Later in 2019, aged 9, he, in collaboration with several other contestants in NASA's space apps challenge, built a platform to recover people who are highly exposed to natural disasters using NASA live satellite data. There they introduced an app called "Megha Naada" which can warn people before floods occur.

In 2021, in his 5th year at NASA's space apps challenge, Megha developed a desktop application called "Heatrix", which

interprets NASA earth fire data and uses the near real-time data and generates the data on an interactive map. The algorithm tells you the time detected the data source (NASA) Fire MW rating (on selected operating systems) and more. The data is accurate to a 1 km radius, beating most fire tracking systems. Every time a fire is detected, it is recorded and is used for predictive analytics. The algorithm also senses air pollution with the exact pollutant in the area and generates a warning (good, dangerous for sensitive groups, medium etc). There is also a function where it reports stress due to a lack of moisture.

Megha was 11 years old when the application was published, and it was recognized for using crowdsourced data, and allowing real time reporting of environmental events.

Megha (left) with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the opening of the Space Discovery Centre, aged 10-11

Megha studied at both Woodcroft College and Westminster School before attending Dara School in 2021, a specialized school for highly gifted students before finally moving to Hamilton Secondary College in 2022.

He was later selected to study part time for a physics major at the University of Flinders, at age 12.

Working as an ambassador

Mission logo for the OSIRIS-REx mission

He is Australia's only junior NASA ambassador for NASA's mission OSIRIS-REx. The aim of Mission OSIRIS-REx is to gather data from the potentially hazardous asteroid, Bennu, which is at risk of colliding with Earth in the future.

Megha Wijewardane (right) after giving a lecture on orbital mechanics at the Asian Aviation Centre in mid 2025

This view of asteroid 101955 Bennu has been cropped from the original image.

As the ambassador of the mission for Australia, he is involved in communications for Australia with the mission OSIRIS-REx. He has the opportunity to access any news about the mission first-hand before it goes public and he shares the updated information with the public. Therefore, he speaks at space summits, and visits schools, universities, astronomical clubs and events to share information about the mission OSIRIS-REx.

In 2025 he toured several Asian countries, including Sri Lanka and did a series of lectures on the systems engineering of the NASA space shuttle at various aviation training centers.

He has a YouTube channel with 33.1 thousand subscribers and over half a million views in total, where he often covers space, engineering, and physics.

On July 10, 2026, he announced the "Megha Wijewardane Podcast", a podcast that uploads videos every Friday, dedicated to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Books and publications

In November of 2025, he published a book about the modern history of Sri Lanka, specifically about the negative effects of colonialism. He also argued that it should have a space industry due to its equatorial position, which would make the launch of rockets cheaper.

Controversy

In a social media post dated early 2026, Megha was the subject of criticism for how he addressed flat earthers, as he had referred to them as "stupid", "pseudoscientific", and "conspiracy theorists". He also used words like "zero brain cells" to describe flat earthers, as well as called them "flerfs". Others praised the post, arguing that despite him using a harsh tone, such conspiracy theories are harmful and attacking them was ultimately justified. A wave of conspiracy theorists flooded his social media accounts, calling him a "government shill", even on completely unrelated posts. The spamming made his Facebook page unusable, and Megha cited it as the reason for the permanent closure of his Facebook page in July of 2026, stating that he would use Youtube as his primary platform from now on.

Hobbies

He is skilled in a variety of sports and plays several instruments.

He has said he plans to start an company called Megha Systems to produce solar powered cars.

External links

• NASA's mission OSIRIS-REx