Lucknow, Oct 15 (IANS): Chandrayaan-2 Mission Director Ritu Karidhal Srivastava was on Tuesday awarded a honorary doctorate by her alma mater, the Lucknow University (LU).

Governor Anandiben Patel conferred the honorary doctorate on Srivastava at a special function held here.

Srivatava finished her post-graduation in 1997 and got enrolled in a doctorate course in the Physics Department in Lucknow University.

She later taught in the same department, and has made her university and the entire nation proud by playing a key role in India's second moon mission.

LU Vice Chancellor S.P. Singh said that university officials and all professors unanimously wanted to honour her contribution, hard work, and excellence.

Srivastava had completed her schooling from Navyug Girls College and joined LU prior to cracking the prestigious Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering. She was a research scholar at LU for six months and left after clearing GATE. She joined IISc, Bangalore, to pursue masters in aerospace engineering.