Indian women astronomers may be few, but they make us proud

Birla planetariums are an attraction for children in many Indian cities. They literally open up the universe to young minds. This is what happened to a ten-year old girl from Daund in Maharashtra a few years ago on a visit to the Birla Planetarium in Kolkata. Today she is a budding astrophysicist engaged in cutting edge of astronomy – hunting for exoplanets.

“I was in Kolkata for marriage of a relative and that’s when I saw a sky show for the first time. It was that moment I decided I wanted to be an astronomer,” says Priyanka Chaturvedi, who just finished her PhD from the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) run by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). She studied radial velocities of stars orbiting around exoplanets. Priyanka is now set to join the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

Most people who have travelled by train in Maharashtra know Daund as an important railway junction. Priyanka’s father is a railway employee. Since the town had few facilities for quality education, she moved to Pune to pursue BSc and then MSc at Fergusson College. “We used to have long power cuts during summer in Daund, so we children used to watch stars. That interest has turned my profession now,” she recalls. A visit to the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics while she was in 12th standard also greatly influenced her to pursue astronomy.

Priyanka is among the small number of women engaged in astronomy and astrophysics research in India. A survey of women in astronomy in India done a couple of years ago showed that only a miniscule number of women are in faculty positions in research institutes engaged in astrophysics research. This is also a global trend with the exception of Italy which has a good number of women astronomers.

Still, women scientists have reached high positions in astrophysics institutes and contributed to astounding discoveries in recent times. GC Anupama is dean of Faculty of Sciences at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bangalore. This institute runs India’s largest telescope – Himalayan Chandra Telescope – at Hanle in Ladakh. Data from this telescope was used in the recent discovery of "another world" or the new planetary system by NASA. She is also involved in other international mega science projects including the Thirty Meter Telescope.

Annapurni Subramaniam, also from IIA, is a senior scientist engaged in astronomical data collection from Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope currently working onboard India’s first astronomical satellite, Astrosat, launched in September 2015. Her research group recently reported how 6 billion old "vampire" stars prey on celestial bodies. Another leading astronomer is S Seetha, who heads the Space Science Programme Office at ISRO.

Yet astronomy is considered a tough option for women because observational astronomy involves working in nights at observatories which are usually located at far off locations. People are also not used to seeing women working in observatories. “Visitors at Hanle used to be surprised finding a woman leading the observation team,” recalled Anupama about her early experience.

Priyanka had to spend ten nights every month for observations at the Infrared Observatory of ISRO located at Mount Abu. “I did not have much difficulty convincing my parents about this though they were little hesitant in the beginning,” says Priyanka.

While the small number of women in astronomy is an issue, the Astronomical Society of India (ASI) is worried about overall shortage of professional astronomers in India which just 500 to of 700 of them. “We need at least ten time this number given the fact that we are in the midst so many exciting mega science projects in which India is participating,” says Sheo Kumar Pandey, president of ASI, which is holding its annual meeting in Jaipur currently. Hopefully more women will take up this stream of science and make many more exciting discoveries in future.

Meanwhile, Priyanaka says she plans to visit the Birla Planetarium in Jaipur taking time off from scientific deliberations at the ASI conference.

Also read - Why the world has always been a hard place for women scientists