Indian Botanists Remembers One Among Many Indian Women Botanists : Dr. Edavaleth Kakkat Janaki Ammal

 (On the Occasion of International Women's Day )

Dr. Edavaleth Kakkat Janaki Ammal

 Born - 4th November 1897

Schooling - Tellichery, Kerala

Bachelor’s degree - Queen Mary’s College, Madras (now Chennai)

Honours degree in Botany- Presidency College , Madras in 1921

Master’s degree - Universityof Michiganin, USA in 1925

DSc (Oriental Barbour Fellow)- Michigan in1931

Professor of Botany - Maharaja’s College of Science, Trivandrum Kerala (1932-34)

Geneticist - Sugarcane Breeding Institute at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu (1934-1939)

Assistant Cytologist - JohnInnes Horticultural Institution, London (1940-50)

Cytologist -Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley during 1945–51

Special Officer - BotanicalSurvey of India (BSI), 1951

Served Govt. of India in various capacities - 1951 to 1970

Associated with Centre for Advanced Study in Botany, Universityof Madras as Emeritus Scientists.

Died in February 1984. 

She never married as she gave more importance to her research career.

Worked on cytogenetics of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) and breeding of sugarcane and other grasses at Sugarcane Breeding Research Institute, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu.

Book - 'The Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants' co-authored with C D Darlington.

The herbarium named after Janaki Ammal at Indian Institute of Integrative Mediciene, Jammu which houses houses more than 21,500 specimens representing 3,254 species, 1,152 genera and 218 families of Angiosperms, Gymnosperms and Pteridophytes.

The Government of India honoured her with the Padma Sri in 1957.

In 2000, Ministry of Environment and Forestry instituted the National Award of Taxonomy in her name.

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Source: http://www.ias.ac.in/womeninscience/janaki.html 

http://www.anusandhan.net/women/main_template.jsp?file=jannakiamma_1.htm

http://www.thalassery.info/personality/janaki.htm

http://www.iiim.res.in/herbarium/introduction.htm

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