Archana Sharma: An Indian Woman Botanist, a Cytogeneticist, Cell Biologist and a Cytotoxicologist

Suresh Narayana Pathiki*, Pullaiah Thammineni**, Varalakshmi Dharani***

*Principal (Retired), S. S. B. N. Junior College

**Professor of Botany (Retried), S. K. University

***Lecturer (Retired), Government Degree College

Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, India

Archana Sharma

Archana Sharma, an Indian Woman Botanist, a renowned Cytogeneticist, Cell biologist and a cytotoxicologist, a founding editor of The Nucleus, an international journal of Cytology, was born on 16th February 1932, in Pune, into a family of academicians. 

She had all her early education in Rajasthan. She completed her B.Sc., from Bikaner and later joined the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta and obtained her M.Sc. degree (1951), followed by her Ph.D. degree (1955). She got her D.Sc. (1960) from the University of Calcutta specializing in Cytogenetics, Human Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis. She had a brilliant academic career throughout and was the second lady to have secured a D. Sc. degree from the Calcutta University, the second oldest in India. She began her professional career by joining the faculty of the University of Calcutta (1967), later became a Professor of Genetics (1972) in the Centre of the Advanced Studies in Cell and Chromosome Research, and the Head of the Department of Botany (1981- 1983) succeeding Prof. A. K. Sharma. 

Kamala Sohonie - Woman, Who Established the Nutritive Value of the Plants, Consumed by Poor People

Ritesh Kumar

Senior Research Fellow, NICRA (Mango) Project

ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region

Research Centre, Plandu, Ranchi-834010

Jharkhand, India

Historically, women have always lagged behind that of men in education and it is pretty well documented. Science and technology have always been considered ‘masculine’ for a long time. The social norms, societal structure, relationship between family and work, and the organizational processes of scientific institutions have created a series of inter-related problems for women in science. After overcoming all the barriers and passing many rapids, Dr. Kamala Sohonie became the ‘Woman in Science’. A firm believer in Mahatma Gandhi, Kamala refused to accept this refusal based on gender bias and became the first Indian woman to get a PhD in a scientific discipline.