Pathbreakers
Since the time Asima Chatterjee and Janaki Ammal blasted their way into the world of science, women in India have been relentless in conquering the scientific world.
Let’s take a look at eight women who have made a mark in their fields. Read about them and then find their first names in the word search puzzle given below. Just to make it a tad more interesting, in the article below, the women will be referred to only by their surnames.
Thomas, known as the ‘Missile Woman’ of India is the Director General of Aeronautical Systems and the former Project Director for Agni-IV missile in Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). She is the first woman scientist to head a missile project in India.
Karidhal was Mission Director of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, was responsible for detailing and the execution of the craft’s onward autonomy system, that independently operated the satellite’s functions in space and responded appropriately to malfunctions. She is known as the ‘Rocket Woman of India’.
Vanitha the Project Director of Chandrayaan-2 and the first woman to lead the interplanetary mission at ISRO.
Kang, a virologist and scientist, is the Executive Director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad, and is the Chairperson of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Southeast-Asia’s Immunisation Technical Advisory Group.
Mani is known as the ‘polar woman of ISRO’ and is ISRO’s first woman scientist to spend more than a year in the icy landscape of Antarctica.
Sivaramakrishnan’s technology is onboard NASA’s New Horizon mission, which is probing Pluto. It is NASA’s farthest space mission.
Shaha is a biologist and the first ever woman president of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA).
Pant is an oceanographer, and the first Indian woman to travel to Antarctica, as a part of the 1983 Indian expedition, to study geology and oceanography.