Google has paid special tributes to one of India's first female scientists , Anna Mani, with a doodle on her 104th birth anniversary. Anna Modayil Mani - born in 1918 - was a physicist and meteorologist from Kerala. She also served as former deputy director general of the Indian Meteorological Department. Anna’s immense interest in reading books made up her mind to go on with her passion rather than getting stuck in a mundane life.
Younger Anna was interested in physics and so, she did B.Sc honors in physics and chemistry from Chennai. After her graduation, she worked with the Nobel laureate, Professor C.V Raman, and researched on the optical properties of ruby and diamond.
Gradually, meteorology captivated her, and that’s when in 1945 she went to Imperial College, London where Anna ended up specialising in meteorological instruments. Before this, she also went to the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru for research in 1940.
Anna was always inspired by the nationalist movement and so by the activities of Mahatma Gandhi. Inspiration was to a level that she later was only wearing khadi clothes. Anna’s life story was inspiring even before she fully entered her higher education.
As an eight-year-old, she read almost all Malayalam books in the public library and by the age of 12, she read all the English books. Her thoughts and the way she wanted to move forward in her career were greatly influenced by her book-reading routine.
At the Thumba rocket launching facility, Anna set up a meteorological observatory and an instrumentation tower and she was also a member of the International Ozone Association. For her contributions to Meteorology, the World Meteorological Organization remembered her on her 100th birth anniversary by publishing her life in a personal interview.
Thanks to Google-Doodle for remembering the birth anniversary of Anna Mani and for her contributions to Indian Meteorology. It will surely help younger generation students to get inspiration to pursue research in science and technology.