DMR

Eminent Women Scientists

Cytogeneticist Archana Sharma (1932-2008)

Archana Sharma was a botanist and specialised in plant genetics. She

did pioneering work in speciation in asexual plants, or understanding how these
plants evolved to become distinct species. She also specialised in studying cells
— their biology, toxicology, and genetics. Some of her other biggest
contributions include research into the underlying mechanism behind the
induction of cell division in an adult nucleus, genetic polymorphism in human
population, and effect of arsenic in water. She was, perhaps, most known for
her work in chromosomes and chromosome-related classification of flowering
plants.
DMR

Botanist Janaki Ammal (1897-1984)

Janaki Ammal was one of India’s earliest botanists, who specialised in

cytogenetics. She was also an expert in phytogeography, or the study of
geographical spread of plant species and how they affect the earth. Her subjects
of genetic experimentation were sugarcane and brinjal. She had an illustrious
career abroad and in India. She was once forced to stay back in the UK due to
the onset of World War II and co-wrote the cytology bible Chromosome Atlas of
Cultivated Plants while she set about crafting hybrid flowers.

Biochemist Darshan Ranganathan (1941-2001)

Darshan Ranganathan was particularly famous for her work in protein folding
and her research in bioorganic chemistry. She also specialised in recreating
naturally-occurring biological reactions in a laboratory setting. This enabled her
to synthetically create several ingredients that are key to drugs and chemicals
of pharmaceutical significance. She was an expert in designing proteins and
other nanostructures of structural importance in chemistry.

Chemist Asima Chatterjee (1917-2006)

Asima Chatterjee was an organic chemist whose biggest claim to fame is her
development of anti-malaria, chemotherapy, and anti-epilepsy drugs. She
performed extensive research on medicinal plants found on the Indian
subcontinent. The aforementioned drug discoveries were a part of her work on
the chemistry of concentrated natural products. She worked for nearly half-a-
century on alkaloids, which are used in chemotherapy to prevent cells from
multiplying.

Physician Kadambini Ganguly (1861-1923)

Kadambini Ganguly was among India’s first two female physicians — as well as
South Asia’s and the British Empire’s — to have been trained in modern
medicine. As the first woman in most places she stepped into, Ganguly fought
off many prejudices and much discrimination. Apart from practicing
DMR

independent medicine, she was also politically very active. She aided in the
freedom struggle against the British Raj, organised Satyagraha meetings in 1906
after the partition of Bengal, and worked tirelessly to improve the conditions of
female coal workers in eastern India.

Anthropologist Iravati Karve (1905-1970)

Iravati Karve was India’s first female anthropologist at a time when the field
went hand-in-hand with sociology. Her fields of expertise encompassed
Indology (the study of Indian history and culture as a subset of Asian culture),
palaeontology, anthropometry (physiological dimensions of human bodies
across cultures), and serology (the study of bodily fluids). She was a pioneer in
women’s education. Karve’s work, considered pioneering for her time, has since
been critiqued for its outmoded and heavy influence of governing tactics by the
British Raj, her conflation of ancient-Sanskrit inspired ideas with modern
anthropology, and her German-tenure inspired ideas of eugenics

Meteorologist Anna Mani (1918-2001)

Anna Mani performed research at the Indian Meteorological Department in

Pune and authored numerous research papers on meteorological
instrumentation. A physicist by training, she specialised in weather and
meteorology, and went on to perform groundbreaking changes in Indian
weather monitoring systems. She established a network of stations to measure
solar radiation, standardised drawings of nearly 100 weather instruments, set
up workshops to manufacture instruments that measured wind speed and solar
energy, and developed an instrument to measure ozone.

Engineer Rajeshwari Chatterjee (1922-2010)

Rajeshwari Chatterjee was a mathematician and an electrical engineer,

specialising in electromagnetic theory, microwave technology, and radio
engineering. She was the first woman engineer from the state of Karnataka and
pursued her PhD in the US just after World War II. She has contributed
immensely to the field of antennas for special purposes used in aircraft and
DMR

spacecraft. After her return to India, she served as faculty in the Indian Institute
of Science, Bengaluru. She then worked with Indian Association for Women’s
Studies.

Mathematician Raman Parimala (1948)

Raman Parimala, the only living person on the list, is a mathematician well-
known for her contributions to algebra. She demonstrated the first example of
a ‘non trivial quadratic space over an affine plane’, in a move that surprised
experts in the field. She specialises in using number theory, algebraic geometry,
and topology. She is also well-recognised for her solution to the second Serre
conjecture.

Physicist Bibha Chowdhuri (1913-1991)

Bibha Chowdhuri is well-known for her work in particle physics and cosmic rays,
and discovery of a new subatomic particle, the pi-meson, from experiments in
Darjeeling. She worked under physicist Debendra Mohan Bose, who was often
credited for her work. She later also worked with Nobel winner Patrick Blackett
on cosmic rays. Upon moving to India, she worked in the field of nuclear physics.
She was involved in the Kolar Gold Field experiments to detect neutrinos.
Recently, through a public competition by the International Astronomical Union
(IAU), which names planetary bodies, the yellow-white dwarf star HD 86081
was renamed Bibha in her honour.

Pathologist Kamal Ranadive (1917-2001)

Kamal Ranadive was a biomedical researcher known for her research in the link
between cancers and viruses. She worked on the development of tissue culture
techniques at Johns Hopkins University the US. She returned to India to set up
the Experimental Biology Laboratory and Tissue Culture Laboratory in Mumbai,
and became the director of the Indian Cancer Research Centre. She also
conducted research into the links between cancer and genetics, as well as cancer
in infants. Her work led to developments in the causes of diseases like
leukaemia, breast cancer, and oesophageal cancer.
DMR