This chilly December, Desh Apnayen raises the heat by celebrating fiery and powerful women of our country. The women who have taken stereotypes head on, broken through shackles of prejudices and decided to let their work speak for themselves. Let us meet our women in science, who strive to bring the stars within our reach every day.
This month, we pay a video tribute to these positive, inspiring, role models.
- Ritu Karidhal, Scientist, ISRO
Ritu Karidhal is a proud contributor to The Mars Orbiter Mission launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation. Leading the team behind the success of ‘Mangalyaan’, Ritu has been involved in a lot of revolutionary space operations with ISRO. A proficient alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science, she completed her Masters in Aerospace Engineering with a clear aim of working towards a change.
Watch this video of her talking about how India made the MoM possible.
(Bio reference – tedxgateway.com)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFX5WHvPB88
- Tessy Thomas, Agni Missile Project Director, DRDO
Aptly called India’s ‘Agni Putri’, Dr. Thomas is the first woman scientist to head a missile project in India. Tessy was associate project director of the 3,000 km range Agni-III missile project. She was the project director for mission Agni IV that was successfully tested in 2011. Tessy was also appointed as the Project Director for 5,000 km range Agni-V in 2009 and is based at the Advanced Systems Laboratory in Hyderabad.
Watch this animated documentary on Dr. Thomas’s life here.
(Bio reference – Wikipedia)
- Qamar Rahman, Dean of Research Science and Technology, Amity University
Qamar Rahman is an Indian scientist who has worked extensively in the last 40 years to understand the physiological effects of nanoparticles. She is known internationally for her work on asbestosis, the effects of slate dust and other household and environmental particulate pollution and means for improving occupational health.
Rostock University, Germany awarded honorary doctorate to her in 2009. Dr.Rahman is the first Indian to receive this honor from this 600-year-old university. She has studied extensively on toxicity of asbestos, soot and many other pollutants. She has also made a film on the subject of women getting exposed to toxic chemicals in the work place.
(Bio reference – Wikipedia and Amity University)
- Sunita Williams, Captain, USN, holds the record for most spacewalk time for a woman in space
Sunita Williams, an astronaut of American-Indian descent, began her Astronaut Candidate training at the Johnson Space Center in August 1998. As of November 2012, Williams has made seven spacewalks totaling 50 hours and 40 minutes, putting Williams in No. 5 on the list of most experienced spacewalkers.
Sunita makes a very powerful point about citizenship when she says, “My space expedition has changed my perspective towards people. Looking down at the Earth, we could not see borders or people with different nationalities. It was then that realisation dawned on us that all of us are a group of human beings and citizens of the universe”.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
Watch this video of Sunita Williams in conversation with ace journalist Shekhar Gupta.
Desh Apnayen celebrates the women who teach the rest of us to dream, do and achieve.
