Indian Women In Science

Did you know that an Indian woman has a star named after her? Well, Bibha Chowdhuri, a physicist from Kolkata, who was the first Indian woman to conduct ground-breaking research on cosmic rays and particle physics — particularly extensive air showers — was honoured by the International Astronomical Union when they renamed the star “HD 86081”, “Bibha”. She was also the first female scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

What is perhaps one of the biggest achievements in the scientific world, Dr Gagandeep Kang was the first female Indian scientist to get elected a fellow of The Royal Society. She is a virologist and a professor at the prestigious Christian Medical College in Vellore. Her research focuses on gastrointestinal infections in children.

A winner of the Padma Bhushan for Medicine in 1982, Kamal Ranadive was a visionary in the field of cancer research — she was one of the first people to identify the links between cancer susceptibility and viruses. Her report on the correlation between breast cancer and heredity has greatly shaped the understanding of the disease. She is also responsible for the establishment of the country’s first tissue culture research lab at the Indian Cancer Research Centre.

An aerospace scientist, Dr. Tessy Thomas is the first ever woman scientist to lead a missile project in India. For this reason, she is often known as the “Missile Woman of India”. She was formerly the project director for the Agni-IV Missile and has been a recipient of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration Academics and Management.

An organic chemist who was noted for developing important anti-epileptic and anti-malarial drugs, Asima Chatterjee was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Science degree from an Indian university — the Rajabazar Science College, Calcutta University. Her research on vinca alkaloids, which comes from the Madagascar periwinkle plant, has been crucial for chemotherapy.

Also known as the “Rocket Woman of India”, Dr. Ritu Karidhal is an aerospace engineer at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). She played a vital role in the development of Mangalyaan, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission. Moreover, she was the Mission Director for Chandryaan 2, the country’s second exploration mission to the moon.

Physicist Aditi Sen De, who is also a professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute in Allahabad, was the first woman to receive the coveted Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, for her work in physical sciences, by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Her contribution to the exacting field of quantum computation — particularly quantum entanglement — is truly path-breaking.

Janaki Ammal was India’s first woman botanist and a true legend who is responsible for the sweetness in the sugarcane varieties available in the country. Despite consistently facing gender and caste discrimination, she made multiple significant contributions to her field such as studying the chromosomes of several species of flowering plants owing to which, a cross-breed variety of the magnolia bloom that she helped create, was named the “Magnolia Kobus Janaki Ammal” at the Royal Horticulture Society in the UK. She was a recipient of the Padma Shri in 1977.

A biologist by profession, Chandrima Shaha happens to be the first ever female president of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). She was also the former director of the National Institute of Immunology. With cell biology (cell death in particular) as her specialisation, she has substantially researched and penned several papers about Kala-azar, or Black Fever, a tropical disease that is caused by the Leishmania parasite.

Mangala Mani is the first woman scientist from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to spend more than a year (403 days to be precise) in the continent of Antarctica. In 2016, she was part of the expedition team that went to Bharati, India’s Antarctic research station. She has been profiled in the “100 Women Challenge” — the BBC’s series on women in science.

One of the first practising female doctors in India, Rukhmabai Bhikaji’s story is an absolutely awe-inspiring one. She was married off at the age of 11 to a 19-year-old man named Dadaji Bhikaji and even as a child bride, she had the guts to contest his claims to conjugal rights. This later led to the enactment of the Age of Consent Act. Rukhmabai then went on to study medicine, receiving her MD from the London School of Medicine for Women.

An Indian-American aerospace engineer, Swati was a part of the team that led the development and landing system of NASA’s Perseverance Rover in 2020. She was the first person to confirm that the rover had successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. She holds a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).