Coimbatore Scientist Awarded
There is a need to foster the spirit of research and scientific temper among women scientists so that gender biases in the educational system can be balanced, Higher Education Minister and Science City Chairman, K. Ponmudy, said.Teachers and research advisors, especially women, should make self-improvement a priority.This, in turn, would equip their students to face the competitive world, he said, giving away the Tamil Nadu Young Women Scientist Award to seven women.The awards were given by the State Government through Science City.Equitable education and research opportunities should be made available to all, including women, M. Anandakrishnan, Chairman of the Madras Institute of Development Studies and Chairman of the executive committee of Science City, said.Of the 4.5 lakh students in arts and science colleges in the State, 52 per cent were women.Of the one lakh engineering graduates passing out every year, 35 per cent were women and among postgraduate students in various subjects, 60 per cent were women.However, the number of women scientists and researchers continued to be low. To remove this anomaly, more universities should be created and a few existing universities should be identified as research universities, he said.
Though existing legislation promised equal opportunities to women, their contribution to the country's economy continued to remain invisible, Mohan Verghese Chunkath, Science City vice- chairman, said.The seven women scientists who were honoured were, M.P. Divya, Associate Professor of Forestry, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore (agricultural sciences); Vidhya Sundararajan, Scientific Officer at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam (chemical sciences); K. Suguna of the Department of Structural Engineering, Annamalai University (engineering and technology); P. Kalaiselvi, Lecturer in Medical Biochemistry, University of Madras (life sciences); K. Ruckmani, Professor of Pharmaceutical Engineering, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli (medical sciences and native medicine); Rajula Chandran, Senior Scientist at Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore (social sciences) and T.V. Meenambigai, Associate Professor, Centre for Animal Health Studies, Chennai (veterinary sciences).K. Ruckmani was given the award in absentia.
