10 Indian Women in Science Who Made History
-By Aastha and Udyat
The United Nations General Assembly has designated February 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Therefore, here are some amazing women scientists from India who have made notable contributions to the fields of science and technology.
Tessy Thomas
Tessy Thomas (April 1963) is an Indian scientist and Director General of Aeronautical Systems and the former Project Director for Agni-IV missile in the Defence Research and Development Organisation. She is the first-ever woman scientist to head a missile project in India. Later, she was nominated as the project director of the 5,000 km range Agni-V in 2009, which was successfully tested on 19 April 2012. In 2018, she became the Director-General of Aeronautical Systems of DRDO. Tessy Thomas received the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for her contribution to making India self-reliant in the field of missile technology.
Gagandeep Kang
Gagandeep Kang FRS (3 November 1962) is an Indian Microbiologist and virologist who is a Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Sciences at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.
She is known for her interdisciplinary research exploring the transmission, evolution, and prevention of enteric infections and their sequelae in children in India.
In 2019, she became the first Indian woman to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. She was on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2020.
Kadambini Ganguly
Kadambini Bose Ganguly (18 July 1861 – 3 October 1923) was one of the first Indian female doctors who practised with a degree in modern medicine. She was the first Indian woman to practise medicine in India. Ganguly was the first woman to gain admission to Calcutta Medical College in 1884.
She was the first woman speaker in the Indian National Congress.
She was awarded the Graduate of Medical College of Bengal (GMCB) degree in 1886, which even attracted the attention of Florence Nightingale who enquired about Ganguly from a friend in a letter in 1888.
Indira Hinduja
Indira Hinduja is an Indian gynaecologist, obstetrician, and infertility specialist based in Mumbai. She pioneered the Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) technique resulting in the birth of India's first GIFT baby on 4 January 1988. Formerly she delivered India's first test tube baby at KEM Hospital on 6 August 1986. She is also credited for formulating an oocyte donation technique for menopausal and premature ovarian failure patients thereby giving the country's first baby out of this technique on 24 January 1991.
She received several awards including the Dhanvantari Award from The Governor of Maharashtra (2000) and the Padma Shri award from the Government of India (2011).
Sulochana Gadgil
Sulochana is an Indian oceanographer and meteorologist whose research led to the discovery of a fundamental element of the sub-seasonal variation in the monsoon cloud bands. In association with the farmers, she derived farming techniques that are designed based on the rainfall variability of diverse regions in India. She specified that the monsoon is not a gigantic land-sea breeze but instead is an indicator of the seasonal migration of a planetary scale system which is seen over non-monsoonal regions too.
Chandrima Shaha
Biologist Chandrima Shaha is the first woman president of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). She specialises in cell biology and has authored over 80 research papers. She conducted extensive research about the leishmania parasite which causes kala-azar or black fever. During her career, she was a member of the Steering Committee for the Task Force on Regulation of Male Fertility of the World Health Organization. She is currently the Governing Council member of IIT Gandhinagar.
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Medal, INSA, 2019 Shakuntala Amirchand Award of IICMR.
Janaki Ammal
She served as the director-general of the Botanical Survey of India and her most renowned studies were on sugarcane and brinjal (eggplant). She developed several hybrid crop species which are still grown today, including varieties of sweet sugarcane which allowed India to grow the crop on its own lands instead of importing from abroad. As a geneticist working for the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden Wisley in the early 1950s, Dr. Janaki was investigating the effects of colchicine on a number of woody plants, including Magnolia.
Janki Ammal was the first Indian scientist to be conferred with the Padma Shri Award in 1977 for her work on plant breeding, cytogenetics and phytogeography.
Two awards were instituted in her name in 1999: EK Janaki Ammal National Award on Plant Taxonomy and EK Janaki Ammal National Award on Animal Taxonomy.
Dr Kamal Ranadive
Dr Kamal Ranadive was a visionary in the field of cancer research, and she was the one to first identify the links between cancer susceptibility and viruses. Her paper on the correlation between breast cancer and heredity led to major developments in the field of cancer research. She was also instrumental in developing the country's first tissue culture research lab establishment at the Indian Cancer Research Centre. Evolution of the leprosy vaccine was a result of her basic research on the bacteria related to leprosy.
Dr Ranadive was conferred with India's second-highest civilian award Padma Bhushan in 1982 for her contribution towards medicine. She was awarded the first Silver Jubilee Research Award 1964, of the Medical Council of India.
Ritu Karidhal
Ritu Karidhal helmed one of India’s most ambitious lunar projects as Mission Director of the Chandrayaan-2 mission. She was responsible for the execution of the craft's onward autonomy system, which independently operated the satellite’s functions in space. She was also the Deputy Operations Director for India’s Mars Orbiter mission, Mangalyaan and the recipient of the ISRO Young Scientist Award from APJ Abdul Kalam in 2007. She has been referred to as one of the many "Rocket Women" of India. She has worked for ISRO since 1997.
Karidhal received the ISRO Young Scientist Award in 2007 from A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, then president of India. Karidhal was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Lucknow University, her alma mater. It was conferred by Governor Anandiben Patel.
Asima Chatterjee
She is the second woman in the country to gain a doctorate in science. Asima’s study on the Madagascar periwinkle plant contributed to the development of drugs used in chemotherapy to slow the growth of cancer cells. She also discovered that the fruits and bark of the bael tree could treat a variety of gastrointestinal disorders. She was a chemistry professor at Calcutta University and the first woman scientist to hold a position in any university in the country.
In 1975, Asima Chatterjee received the Padma Bhushan award and was elected as the General President of the Indian Science Congress Association.In 1961, she received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in chemical science, becoming the first female recipient of this award. She was nominated by the President of India as a Member of the Rajya Sabha from February 1982 to May 1990.
Indian women have blazed new trails in science, and have taken our country’s name forward. In a male-dominated country and industry, these women have risen above the rest and made a name for themselves. They are proof that when it comes to achieving great heights, gender is inconsequential.
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