A nun in India has received a PhD for her study of scramjet engines, devices that can be used in space craft, news reports said.

Sister Benedicta of the Holy Face, 32, is a member of a Carmelite community in the city of Pune, India. Her convent is cloistered and bans most contact with the outside world.

Benedicta joined the community while working as a PhD student at India’s prestigious Defence Institute of Advance Technology, the reports said.

She told Crux, a U.S.-based Catholic news service, she encountered God through her doctoral studies and decided to put her love for Jesus above everything else in her life.

She entered the cloister last year, shortly after her final viva examination, The Indian Express quoted her saying. She was granted permission to leave it briefly for the doctoral convocation.