Celebrating Women in Astronomy

The enigmatic cosmos has captivated human minds for centuries, and women have played a pivotal role in unraveling its mysteries. In the recent week, we all have been celebrating international women's day. So Let us take a moment to acknowledge the remarkable achievements of women in astronomy.

1. Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been one of the leading women in astronomy. Burnell discovered the first radio pulsar in 1967. She was the second author of the paper announcing the discovery of pulsars; first was his supervisor Antony Hewish who went on to win the Nobel prize for this discovery. Burnell later on, became the president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004. After Dorothy Hodgkin, she became the second woman to receive the prestigious Copley medal. Recently in 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Later on, she announced to use the prize fund of $ 3 million to establish funds for female students in physics.

2. G C Anupama

Professor G C Anupama is an Indian astronomer and the first woman to head the Astronomical Society of India(ASI). She served as the president of the association from 2019-2022. Anupama has significantly contributed to the study of supernovae. She has also been part of India's core team for the project 'GROWTH'. Under this project, 'GROWTH-India' has installed a 0.7m wide field robotic telescope at IAO, Hanle.

3. Katherine Louise Bouman

Katherine Louise Bouman is an American computer scientist who works in the field of computer imagery. In 2013, Bouman joined the Event Horizon Telescope project and spearheaded the creation of an algorithm named Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors (CHIRP). CHIRP was used to acquire the first-ever image of a black hole, and Bouman played an instrumental role in developing an imaging framework for ETH.

4. Annapurni Subramaniam

Dr. Annapurni Subramaniam is the director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bangalore and has made notable contributions to the study of star formation and galaxy evolution. Subramaniam's work has shed light on the structure and evolution of galaxies, including the role of star formation and feedback processes. She has published several research papers in leading international journals and has received several awards for her contributions to the field.

5. Prajval Shastri

Prajval Shastri was a professor of astrophysics at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bangalore who worked on understanding the evolution of galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their centers. Shastri's research has contributed significantly to understanding the relationship between galaxies and supermassive black holes, including their growth and feedback processes. She has published numerous research papers in international journals and has received several awards for her contributions to the field.

As we are talking about the contributions of these women scientists, let's also celebrate the incredible achievements of many more women who have inspired the next generation of women scientists to continue pushing the boundaries of our understanding of the universe.

- Sanskar (MS21234)