6. Archana Sharma(1932- 2008)



 

Archana Sharma was a botanist and plant geneticist. She was the first to study in detail the genetic characteristics of asexual plants, their biology and how they are affected by other toxins (toxicology). She  also studied the division of the nucleus of mature plant cells, the genetic characteristics, and the changes caused by arsenic in water. Her  greatest contribution was the study of the chromosomes of flowering plants.

 

Archana Sharma was born on 16 June 1932 in Pune. Hers was a family of academics, her father and grandfather both being college professors. Took her B.Sc from Bikaner, Rajasthan. Then Msc degree and PhD degree  from Calcutta University in 1951 and 1955 .At that time,  Calcutta University was the second oldest university in India. In 1960, Archana Sharma was the second woman to obtain a Ph.D from there. Her subjects of study were Cytogenetics, Human Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis.

Professional life

In 1967, Archana Sharma joined Calcutta University as a teacher. In 1972, she became a professor at the Centre for the Study of Cells and Chromosomes. In 1981, she became the Chair of the Department of Botany, succeeding her husband, Prof. AK Sharma, and remained there till 1983. In her long academic career, she has guided over 70 students for Ph.D.

Her research and that of her students included many innovative contributions to botanical science. These include asexual plant reproduction, induced division in the mature nucleus, interactions of toxins in cells, cell taxonomy of flowering plants, and effects of arsenic in water. They made some ground-breaking discoveries about human genetics and genetic polymorphism in normal human organisms.

 

She was a member of University Grants Commission, National Commission for Women, Environmental Science Research Council, Science & Engineering Research Council and Overseas Advisory Committee. He was also the Chairman of the Special Advisory Committee on Human Resource Development in the Department of Biotechnology. She was a member of several committees under the Government of India to take critical policy decisions. She was also a prominent presence in the UGC, Science & Technology and Biotechnology Departments.

 

During her career she published 10 books and nearly 400 research papers. The book Chromosome Techniques - Theory and Practice published by her and her husband AK Sharma in 1965 is one of the authoritative texts on the subject. She published an international journal in cytology called Nucleus. She was also a member of the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Biology and Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences. He was also the editor of some books for CRC, Oxford, IBH, Kluwer Academic and Gordon & Beach publishing companies.

Archana Sharma's husband was Arun Kumar Sharma, known as the father of Indian cytology.

Archana Sharma passed away on 14 January 2008

Awards and prizes

• GP Chatterjee Award 1995

• SG Sinha Award 1995

• Padma Bhushan Award, 1984

• Birbal Sahni Medal 1984

• FICCI Award 1983

• Indian Academy of Science Fellowship 1977

• Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award 1975

• J.C. Bose Award, 1972

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