Google Doodle Celebrates Dr Kamala Sohonie, First Indian Woman To Get PhD In Science

Dr Kamala Sohonie was the first Indian woman to receive a PhD in a scientific field during a time when Indian women were conspicuously under represented in scientific disciplines.

New Delhi: Google celebrated the 112th birth anniversary of Indian biochemist Dr Kamala Sohonie with a doodle. Dr Sohonie was the first Indian woman to receive a PhD in the scientific field.

“Today’s Doodle celebrates the 112th birthday of Indian biochemist Dr Kamala Sohonie. She was the first Indian woman to achieve a PhD in a scientific field during a time when Indian women were conspicuously underrepresented in scientific disciplines. By breaking barriers and proving her doubters wrong, Dr. Sohonie not only did pioneering work in her field of biochemistry but helped forge a path for future Indian women to overcome gender bias and pursue their dreams,” Google said.

Who Was Dr Kamala Sohonie

• Dr Kamala Sohonie was born in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore on June 18 in 1911 to parents who were respected chemists.
• Wanting to follow in her father’s and uncle’s footsteps, Kamala Sohonie studied chemistry and physics at Bombay University and graduated at the top of her class in 1933.
• Sohonie became the first woman to be inducted into the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) but was imposed with stringent conditions during her first year—all because its director doubted the capabilities of women in science.
• D’Sohonie proved her competence and was granted permission to continue her research. In fact, she impressed the director so much that the IISc began accepting more women into their program. For the next few years, Sohonie studied the various proteins found in legumes and concluded they boosted nutrition in children. In 1936, she published her thesis on this subject and obtained her master’s degree.
• One year later, Sohonie earned a research scholarship at Cambridge University. Sohonie discovered Cytochrome C, an enzyme important to energy generation, and found it in all plant cells. In just 14 months, she completed her thesis about this finding and received her PhD.
• When she returned to India, Kamala Sohonie continued studying the benefits of certain foods and helped develop an affordable dietary supplement made from palm nectar. This nutritious drink, called Neera, is a good source of Vitamin C and has been proven to improve the health of malnourished children and pregnant women.
• Kamala Sohonie was awarded the Rashtrapati Award for her work on Neera. She also became the first female director of the Royal Institute of Science in Bombay.