The first female scientist of India was “Asima Chatterjee”. In 1944, she became the first women to be awarded with a degree of Doctor of Science by and Indian University i.e. University of Calcutta.
She was also became the first woman who was elected as the General President of the Indian Science Congress, a renowned institution which look after the Scientific Research. She registered her keen interest in the field of ‘Organic Chemistry’ and ‘Phytomedicine’. Her most influential and notable work was a research on ‘Vinca Alkaloids’, developing the ‘Anti-Epileptic Drug’ and development of ‘Anti-Malaria Drug’.
She made her research at a valuable level and wrote some books as well during this phase on “Medicinal Plant of the Indian Subcontinent”. Her notable instructors for the research work and assistance at the time were Prafulla Chandra Roy and Satyendra Nath Bose. As well as, she had experience of research from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Caltech with László Zechmeister too. She spent about 40 years of his life in researching over various alkaloid compounds.
During her research phase, she even wrote approximately 400 research papers which were published in both national and international journals. Her publications have been profoundly used and read, and many of her works have been included in several textbooks as well. She has won several prestigious awards and are, the ‘S S Bhatnagar Award’, the ‘P C Ray Award’, and the ‘C V Raman Award’. She is also the recipient of the ‘Padma Bhushan’ the third-highest civilian award, in recognition of her contributions to the field of science.
Professor Asima Chatterjee, in the year 1960 was also elected as the Fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India. In 1961, she received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Chemistry from the CSIR (India) which remarked her valuable contribution in the field of Chemistry of Natural Products.