We need more Indian women to make a mark in science: Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I believe Indian women in science need more role models they can identify with.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw 11 February, 2021 10:33 am IST Text Size:
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A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for,” said Grace Hopper (1906–1992), one of the first programmers in the history of computers. Her belief that programming languages should be as easily understood as English was highly influential on the development of COBOL, one of the first computer programming languages.
Madam starmaker
When it comes to prestige in US education, few names carry more weight than Harvard University.
Founded in 1636 in Cambridge, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as New College, Harvard is the US’s oldest institution of higher education.
People today might think of Harvard for its legal and business studies but from its early days it was known as a centre of scientific research.
Less known is the role that women played at Harvard in developing astronomy as a science. Prominent among these starry women was Henrietta Swan Leavitt, born on 4 July 1868 in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
In 1888 Leavitt entered the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, which later became Radcliffe College, an offshoot of male-only Harvard. Her studies ranged from classical Greek, fine arts and philosophy, to analytical geometry and differential calculus.