Indian women in STEM
The decades following India’s independence in 1947 were a formative period for science in the country. As new laboratories were established, disciplines took shape, and research began to align with national needs, more and more women joined efforts to strengthen the newly independent country’s scientific progress. As researchers, teachers, and builders of institutions, they contributed to developing the many domains of medicine, engineering, and other sciences in the country. Their participation was not limited to classrooms, clinics, field stations, laboratories, and observatories within India; rather, they increasingly made their presence felt in global scientific contexts, pioneering techniques and unraveling truths that have shaped science and its practice worldwide.
This article focuses on a small group of women whose careers reflect important phases in the development of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in India after 1947. The work of these women has helped expand the visibility of Indian scientists on the global stage.
1950s
Anna Mani
Meteorology—instrumentation
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In India during the 1950s, national policy strongly favored import substitution—the domestic production of commercial and industrial goods that had previously been obtained from abroad. Within this context meteorologist Anna Mani, who joined the India Meteorological Department in what is now Pune, Maharashtra, in 1948, assumed responsibility for developing instruments to measure atmospheric radiation. Over the next three decades she played a central role in designing and manufacturing a range of devices for meteorological observation, contributing significantly to the technological self-reliance of the newly independent nation.
Trained as a physicist at Presidency College, Madras (now Chennai), Mani began her research career in 1940 at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in the laboratory of Nobel laureate C.V. Raman. A government scholarship enabled her to study in England, where she was required to specialize in meteorological instrumentation—a funding stipulation that proved decisive for her career.
Among the many instruments that Mani designed for measuring atmospheric and weather-related parameters was the first Indian-made ozonesonde. It was widely used by Indian meteorologists to monitor atmospheric ozone concentration and produced data that supported the identification of the Antarctic ozone hole when it was reported in 1985. Her studies of wind patterns and speed aided the establishment of wind energy sites across India, and she set up a small manufacturing unit near Bengaluru (then Bangalore) to produce instruments for measuring wind speed and solar radiation. She retired in 1976 as deputy director general of the India Meteorological Department, having received numerous honors and the informal title Weather Woman of India for her role in advancing India’s capacity for independent meteorological research and instrumentation.
Kamala Sohonie
Biochemistry—protein chemistry and nutritional biochemistry
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Biochemist Kamala Sohonie did pioneering work in analyzing the nutritional composition of foods commonly consumed across India. Her efforts were aimed at assessing and improving the diet of impoverished and malnourished populations in the early decades of the Indian republic. Among Sohonie’s notable findings was the high nutritive value of neera (or palm nectar), the sap of toddy palms, which she demonstrated could inexpensively address malnutrition among children and pregnant people. This contribution later earned her the Rashtrapati Award (President’s Award).
Sohonie’s scientific career was marked by determination in the face of institutional barriers. After being denied admission to IISc because of prevailing gender bias, she undertook a satyagraha (nonviolent protest) that led to her admission as the institute’s first woman student. After graduating with distinction, she went to the University of Cambridge in the late 1930s to study enzymes. Working under the British biochemist Robert Hill, she demonstrated the presence of the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase in plant cells and clarified its role in cellular respiration. This research formed the basis of her doctoral dissertation, and in 1939 she became the first Indian woman to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.
Returning to India soon afterward, Sohonie held research and administrative positions at several institutions, including the Nutrition Research Laboratories (currently the National Institute of Nutrition) in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, and the Royal Institute of Science, Bombay (now the Institute of Science, Mumbai), where she later served as director. She also served as chair of the Consumer Guidance Society of India, one of the country’s earliest consumer protection organizations.
1960s
Rajeshwari Chatterjee
Engineering—microwave and radio engineering
India’s first woman microwave engineer, Rajeshwari Chatterjee, preferred to identify as an “engineer-scientist,” since her work was focused on academic research rather than industrial practice. Over a career spanning three decades, her contributions proved foundational to technologies later employed in the country’s defense and space programs.
After completing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in mathematics and physics in India, Chatterjee received a government scholarship to pursue higher education in the United States. At the University of Michigan she received an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. In 1953 she joined the faculty of IISc in the department of electrical communication engineering. There she and her husband, Sisir Kumar Chatterjee, also a member of the department, established one of India’s earliest microwave engineering laboratories and carried out pioneering research over the next 30 years. Her work focused in particular on antennas for air and spacecraft, and its applications have continued in radar systems and other defense technologies developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Kamal Ranadive
Biomedicine—cytogenetics and cancer studies
In 1963 Kamal Ranadive took over the reins of the Indian Cancer Research Centre (ICRC; now the Cancer Research Institute of the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai)—one of India’s premier cancer research institutions. After completing a postgraduate degree in cytogenetics from the Agriculture College in Pune and a doctorate from the University of Bombay, Ranadive trained under the cell biologist George Gey, who is noted for developing the first immortal human cell line, HeLa, at Johns Hopkins University. On her return to India, Ranadive joined the ICRC and established the country’s first tissue culture laboratory there.
She was a pioneer in developing animal models of cancer, which proved crucial to understanding cancer pathogenesis. The models developed by her team were used to study the pathophysiology of leukemia, breast cancer, and esophageal cancer. She was also among the first to propose that the risk of developing cancer may depend on how hormones and viruses act in the body.
Ranadive’s research on the bacterium responsible for leprosy later contributed to the development of a leprosy vaccine. Her other initiatives included the establishment of the Indian Women Scientists’ Association and, after her retirement, efforts to improve the health conditions of tribal women in Maharashtra. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan—India’s third highest civilian award—in 1982 for her contributions to biomedical research.
1970s
Asima Chatterjee
Chemistry—medicinal and organic chemistry
Asima Chatterjee accomplished many firsts over the course of her career. She was the first woman to be awarded a doctoral degree by an Indian university, receiving her Doctor of Science degree in 1944 from the University of Calcutta’s department of chemistry. Before completing her doctorate, she had already established and begun teaching in the department of chemistry at Lady Brabourne College in Kolkata (then Calcutta). In 1947, while on study leave, she traveled abroad and worked with noted chemists, including Nobel Prize nominee László Zechmeister and Nobel laureate Paul Karrer, concentrating on glycosides, carotenoids, provitamins, and biologically active alkaloids.
After her return to India, Chatterjee joined the department of chemistry at the University of Calcutta, where she spent most of her professional life. In 1962 she was appointed Khaira Professor of Chemistry, one of the university’s most distinguished chairs, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Her research focused on biologically active alkaloids and coumarins, and under her leadership the department made significant advances in natural product chemistry. She contributed to the development of antiepileptic and antimalarial drugs based on indigenous plant sources. Many of these drugs are still in use.
Chatterjee also played a key role in establishing the Regional Research Institute (Ayurveda) in Kolkata (currently, Central Ayurvedic Research Institute), intended to support research on medicinal plants and the development of Ayurvedic formulations. She became the first female recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (in 1961) and was the first woman general president of the Indian Science Congress Association (in 1975). She also received the Padma Bhushan in 1975. She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, in 1982 and 1984.
Bimla Buti
Physics—plasma physics
In the traditionally male-dominated field of physics, Bimla Buti established a distinguished career as an award-winning plasma physicist. She completed her doctoral research at the University of Chicago under the supervision of the Nobel Prize–winning astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar before taking up a teaching position at the University of Delhi. Soon afterward she moved to the United States to work at NASA, researching solitons (solitary waves that can travel long distances without distortion) and chaos theory (the mathematical theory concerned with the unpredictable course of events). She later returned to India, working first at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, and then at the Physical Research Laboratory at the invitation of the physicist and industrialist Vikram Sarabhai.
At PRL, Buti helped introduce experimental plasma physics and, with her colleagues, carried out pioneering research on solitary waves and solitons. She subsequently served as director of plasma physics at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. Buti was the first Indian woman physicist to be elected a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. Over the course of her career she received numerous honors, including the U.S. Medal for Fundamental Contributions in the Physics of Nonlinear Waves and Chaos in 2010, awarded for her work on chaos theory.
Indira Nath
Medicine—immunology, pathology, and medical biotechnology
When Indira Nath left her post as a house officer at a hospital in England and returned to India in the 1970s, leprosy was a significant public health problem in the country. A trained physician, she joined the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi and focused her research on the immunology of infectious diseases, particularly leprosy. Over time she made important contributions to the understanding of cellular immune responses and nerve damage in human leprosy, as well as to the identification of markers associated with the bacterium that causes the disease. Her work contributed to the development of diagnostic methods, immunotherapeutic approaches, and antigen-based tools for the clinical investigation of leprosy.
Nath later established and led the department of biotechnology at AIIMS and expanded her research to include the molecular biological aspects of leprosy. Her efforts advanced India’s ability to contain the disease. She received numerous honors, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1983), the Padma Shri (1999), and the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science–Asia Pacific region (2002).
1980s
Aditi Pant
Earth sciences—oceanography and marine biology
As a child, Aditi Pant was enamored with British marine biologist Alister Hardy’s The Open Sea. The biology and ecology of plankton—passively floating aquatic organisms—were of particular interest to her. This interest in marine life and her enthusiasm for outdoor work contributed to her decision to pursue a master’s degree in marine sciences at the University of Hawaii with a U.S. scholarship once she completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pune, Maharashtra. She then received a doctorate from Westfield College, University of London. In collaboration with the British biologist G.E. Fogg, Pant studied photosynthesis in marine plankton and the movement of organic carbon within ocean food chains.
Pant returned to India in the early 1970s and joined the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa, a decision influenced partly by NIO’s founding director, zoologist N.K. Panikkar. She conducted extensive coastal surveys along India’s western shores. Much of this research was conducted under field conditions with limited infrastructure, and Pant was often the only female scientist in the team. These early works by NIO scientists contributed to a better understanding of India’s coastal productivity and marine resources. In 1983 Pant joined the Third Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica, becoming the first Indian woman to join an Antarctic expedition. There she investigated marine food chains and environmental processes under polar conditions. For her contributions, she later received national recognition, including the Antarctica Award from the government of India. In the 1990s Pant moved to the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, where, over the next 15 years, she studied the enzymes of microorganisms adapted to high-salinity environments.
1990s
Kalpana Chawla
Space—astronautics and aerospace engineering
The asteroid 51826, an International Space Station resupply capsule, and part of 74th Street in New York City between Roosevelt and 37th avenues have one thing in common: They all bear the name of Kalpana Chawla, the first woman of Indian origin in space. Chawla was born in Karnal, Haryana, and received her initial training in aeronautical engineering at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh. She was among the first women to graduate from the institution in the discipline. Chawla subsequently pursued advanced studies in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, specializing in fluid dynamics and aerodynamic behavior in flight systems.
Before becoming an astronaut, Chawla worked as a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Her work focused on simulating air flows around flying aircraft. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1991, a prerequisite for joining the astronaut corps, and was selected to NASA’s astronaut program in the mid-1990s. Chawla’s first mission was aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1997; on this mission she participated in experiments related to microgravity and the effects of space. Her second mission, STS-107, which launched in January 2003, ended tragically when Columbia disintegrated during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members.
Chawla’s achievements had a lasting impact in India. Her career reshaped public perceptions of women pursuing technical fields, particularly space science. Her name continues to be associated with Indian aerospace research in the form of the country’s first satellite dedicated to meteorological observation. Launched in 2002 as METSAT-1, this satellite was renamed Kalpana-1 in 2003 by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Chawla was posthumously awarded several of NASA’s highest civilian honors, including the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.
2000s
Tessy Thomas
Engineering—missile guidance, navigation, and strategic systems
“Gender does not matter. You work as a scientist, not as a woman”—so says India’s Missile Woman, Tessy Thomas. She ventured into a field that has traditionally been associated with men. As a scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Thomas works on missile guidance, navigation, and mission design within India’s strategic weapons programs.
An alumna of Calicut University, Keralam, and the Institute of Armament Technology (IAT; now Defence Institute of Advanced Technology), Pune, Thomas began her career in 1986 as a faculty member in guided missiles at IAT. Soon after, she moved into defense research establishments in Hyderabad. Much of her early work was carried out quietly, in laboratories where long-range missile systems were being developed under strict technical and strategic constraints.
Thomas became associated with the Agni missile program—India’s long-range missile development effort—while it was still in its early testing phase. Her research helped develop guidance logic that could be applied consistently across different missile configurations, rather than being tailored to a single design. She subsequently became the project director for Agni-IV and Agni-V, becoming the first woman to head long-range missile programs in India. In public discourse Thomas came to be known as the Missile Woman and Agni Putri—the latter meaning “daughter of fire” in Sanskrit, a reference to the Agni missile series. For her contributions Thomas has been recognized through national and institutional honors, including the DRDO Scientist of the Year Award (2008), DRDO Performance Excellence Awards for Agni-IV (2011) and Agni-V (2012), the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence (2012), the Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Award (2016), and the Kerala Sasthra Puraskaram (2024).
Annapurni Subramaniam
Astronomy—stellar populations, star clusters, and space-based observatories
Just as it is with missiles, astrophysics is a field in which women have traditionally been underrepresented in senior scientific roles. Challenging the tradition, Annapurni Subramaniam became a leading observational astronomer and the first woman director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Bangalore (now Bengaluru). At IIA she has combined observational data across ultraviolet, optical, and infrared wavelengths to study stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, including the Magellanic Clouds. Her work focuses on understanding the formation and evolution of stars and their assembly into larger systems such as galaxies. She has been instrumental in mapping the structure and age distribution of star clusters and in identifying unusual stellar populations—such as blue straggler stars and white dwarf companions.
Subramaniam has also contributed to strengthening India’s space-based astronomy capabilities. She was closely involved with the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope aboard AstroSat, India’s first dedicated multiwavelength space observatory. Here she worked on instrument calibration and performance verification after launch. Building on this experience, she has led efforts to define a next-generation ultraviolet-optical space telescope concept, which would extend India’s capacity for high-resolution astronomical imaging and spectroscopy. Subramaniam has also contributed to the Thirty Meter Telescope project, a multinational partnership among institutions in the United States, Canada, Japan, China, and India, to develop a large-aperture optical and infrared observatory. In recognition of her work, she has received many awards, including the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (Vigyan Shri, 2024). She has also been elected to major scientific academies in India.
2010s
Ritu Karidhal
Engineering—space systems, mission operations, and spacecraft autonomy
Ritu Karidhal Srivastava, professionally known as Ritu Karidhal, is a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). She focuses on designing and managing mission-critical operations for planetary and lunar spacecraft. Karidhal obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Lucknow. This was followed by a master’s degree in aerospace engineering at IISc. She joined ISRO in 1997 and worked across satellite, planetary, and navigation-related projects.
Karidhal served as the deputy operations director for India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), popularly known as Mangalyaan. She and her colleagues oversaw mission-critical phases such as Earth departure, deep-space cruise, and Mars orbit insertion. The successful insertion of MOM into Martian orbit in 2014, which India achieved on its first attempt, marked a significant milestone for ISRO’s interplanetary program. Karidhal later served as mission director for Chandrayaan-2—India’s lunar mission—and assumed leadership responsibilities in India’s subsequent lunar projects. She has received several recognitions, including the ISRO Young Scientist Award (2007), presented by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam during his tenure as the president of India; the ISRO Team Award for the Mars Orbiter Mission (2015); and the Women Achievers in Aerospace Award (2017) from the Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies and Industries.
Gagandeep Kang
Medicine—microbiology, infectious disease, and public health
Infections that affect the gastrointestinal tract are known as enteric diseases. They are a major cause of severe illness and death among children in India. These diseases are of particular concern in areas with limited health care and public health infrastructure. Addressing the challenge of enteric diseases has been the mission of physician-scientist Gagandeep (“Cherry”) Kang. Her pioneering work combining laboratory analysis with long-term community-level studies helped examine childhood infection in relation to nutrition, immune response, and environmental conditions.
Kang trained in medicine and microbiology at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu. She focused on enteric diseases early in her career. A major area of her research has been rotavirus, a leading cause of acute diarrheal disease in young children. Her research has helped explain why vaccine protection varied across populations. She has been instrumental in the testing and introduction of Indian-produced rotavirus vaccines, including Rotavac and Rotasiil. These vaccines were subsequently incorporated into the national immunization program and approved for international use. She also helped establish surveillance systems for rotavirus and typhoid in vulnerable communities, strengthening the data used to assess disease trends and vaccine performance. Her contributions to vaccinology and epidemiology have earned Kang the title of the “vaccine godmother of India.”
Public health is also one of Kang’s major research areas. She has contributed to discussions around disease monitoring, sanitation-linked health risk, and child nutrition. In addition to her scientific work, Kang has helped improve medical research in the country and made efforts to ensure that scientific discoveries are used to improve people’s health. Her contributions have earned her national and international recognition. In 2019 she became the first Indian woman to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London. She has also been honored with the Infosys Prize in Life Sciences (2016) and the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award (2024).
2020s
Sunita Sarawagi
Technology—artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data systems
Sunita Sarawagi is a computer scientist whose work has focused on how machines extract and organize information from unstructured data. She is an alumna of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and the University of California, Berkeley. She worked at the intersection of databases, machine learning, and natural language processing at a time when these areas were largely separate.
Her work advanced methods that allow computers to extract structured information from text, including identifying names, attributes, and relationships within documents. In particular she developed probabilistic sequence models—such as semi-Markov approaches—that improved how such patterns are detected across longer stretches of text. These methods made it possible to automatically convert documents and semi-structured sources into searchable, comparable, and analyzable datasets and became foundational to advances in data mining and AI-based text analysis. She also worked on techniques for identifying and merging records that refer to the same entity across large datasets. Beyond research, Sarawagi played an institutional role in shaping AI and data science initiatives at IIT Bombay. She was elected as a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (2013) and the Association for Computing Machinery (2021) and received the Infosys Prize in Engineering and Computer Science (2019).