ASIMA

CHATTERJEE
Minerva Siddhi
IX - E

(23 September 1917 - 23 November 2006

 Asima Chatterjee: the Scientist Who Did So Much More in a
Time of Less

• Let us remember Asima Chatterjee as a world-class chemist in a time when science was a
lot less comfortable to do and involved a lot more of getting your hands dirty than it
does today.
• While for centuries plants have been used for their medicinal properties, the biological
mechanisms underpinning these plants’ effects was not known until chemists like
Chatterjee began their work. 
• She was a pioneer woman scientist of India. She is best known for her significant work in
natural products, especially alkaloids, coumarins and terpenoids derived from Indian
medicinal and other plants .
 EARLY LIFE & CHILDHOOD
• Asima chatterji was born on September 23rd, 1917 in Calcutta. She was born into a middle-
class family which, at the time, meant no education for females.  Her father Indra Narayan
Mookerjee was a doctor and was very supportive of Asima and her education.
• In 1936, she did her higher studies in chemistry, passing with honors distinction, from the
Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta.
• She further pursued Masters in Organic Chemistry from the University of Calcutta and
obtained the degree in 1938. She did not stop at this and went on to do her D.Sc. at the
University of Calcutta.
• She was the first woman to receive a doctorate at an Indian University in 1944. As a doctoral
student, she worked on the chemistry of plant products and synthetic organic chemistry with
the renowned chemists, Prafulla Chandra Ray and Satyendra Nath Bose.
• She went on to University of Wisconsin and Caltech for her post-doctoral research on
biologically active alkaloids. She later joined the University College of Science at the
University of Calcutta as a Reader in pure Chemistry. 
 CONTRIBUTIONS
• She established a school of natural products chemists in India.
• She helped establish the Regional Research Institute for investigations on Indian
medicinal plants for the development of Ayurvedic drugs.
• An Ayurvedic Hospital was also established as part of the Institute for systematic
clinical trials
 AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
• Appointed as the Honorary Coordinator of the Special Assistance Programme to intensify
teaching and research in natural product chemistry,
•A Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.
•Received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in chemical science, becoming the first female
recipient of this award.
•Conferred the Padma Bhushan and became the first female scientist to be elected as the
General President of the Indian Science Congress Association 
•Conferred the D. Sc. degree by several universities.
•Nominated by the President of India as a Member of the Rajya Sabha 
•Won the C.V Raman award, P.C Ray Award, and the S.S Bhatnagar award.
•IIT Patna named a girls' hostel after Asima
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA