3 Anna Mani (1918 -2001)

 

Anna Mani was another woman scientist who was born and brought up in Kerala. She contributed many of her own inventions in weather observation and forecasting. She worked for a long time at the Indian Meteorological Organization, Pune. A graduate in Physics, she revolutionized weather observation and forecasting in India. A series of instruments were built for meteorological observation and for measuring radiation from the sun. About 100 meteorological instruments were designed and workshops were set up to manufacture them. She  also directed the development and manufacture of instruments to measure wind speed and solar energy availability.

Early life

Anna Modail Mani was born in 1918 in Peerumedu , Kerala in a Syrian Christian family. Her  father was a civil engineer, and he was a man who did not place much value on religious rituals. Anna was the seventh of their eight children. Anna was very much interested in reading in her youth. She had a lot of love for Gandhi who participated in the Vaikom Satyagraha. Anna, who was active in national freedom activities, got involved in the Khadi movement and used Khadi clothes all her life.

Anna's family was an orthodox Christian family in Kerala. A typical family where boys go for higher education and seek work and girls are given only primary education and married off when they reach adulthood. But Anna was an exception. She was very much interested in reading books from her childhood and by the time she was about eight years old, she had read all the Malayalam books available in the library in the locality where they lived. Then she read English books and when she was 12 years old, she had  read all the English books in that library. On her ninth birthday, she was offered a pair of  diamond earrings that were customary in her family. She refused to accept that, instead requested her father  to buy the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The world of books opened up a world of new ideas to her. Anna also has a high sense of social justice.

Education

Although Anna's wish was to study dance, she started studying Physics. There was a sudden interest in it. In 1939, she graduated from Pachaiyappas College, Madras with BSc Honours in Physics and Chemistry. In 1940, she received a scholarship to the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for research. In 1945, Anna joined Imperial College London for further studies in Physics. But there she started learning about weather observation instruments.

Professional life

After graduating from Pachaiyappas College, under Prof. Solomon she started  her research on the light radiating behaviour of ruby ​​and diamond. She has published five research papers on this subject. Then she submitted her Ph.D. thesis, but as she did not have a Master's degree in Physics, she was not awarded  Ph.D. degree, as per university regulations. After returning from London in 1948, she joined the Meteorological Institute in Poona. While working there, she published papers on various instruments for meteorological observations. As part of the work they used to install such equipment imported from Britain. In 1953, she became the head  of the  group which had 121 men worked under her.

Anna Mani's next goal was to make such devices in India and become self-sufficient. They set standards for more than 100 devices. During 1957-58, a series of solar observation instruments were built. They set up a workshop in Bangalore to make instruments for measuring wind speed and solar energy. They also worked to develop an instrument to measure ozone. She then  became a member of the International Ozone Organization. She  was also instrumental in  setting  up a meteorological observation tower at the Rocket Launching Station in Thumba.

She did not marry because she was busy working full time. She has been active in Indian National Science Academy, American Meteorological Society, International Solar Society, World Meteorological Society and International Society for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics. In 1987, Anna Mani was awarded the KR Ramanathan Medal of the Indian National Science Academy.

In 1969, she was promoted as Deputy Director General and shifted to Delhi. 1975 she worked in Egypt as World Meteorological Expert. In 1976, she retired as the Director of the Indian Meteorological Department.

She suffered a stroke in 1994 from which she died on 16th August 2001 in Thiruvananthapuram. The World Meteorological Organization marked her 100th birthday with an interview and commemoration of her life's contributions.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Mani