It’s her birthday today. Google created a special doodle to commemorate the 140th birthday of Indian physicist and meteorologist Anna Mani, who made significant contributions to meteorological instrumentation. Anna Mani, also worked for physicist and Professor C.V. Raman.
Anna Mani, who was born in 1918 in Kerala to a Syrian Christian family. She made numerous valuable contributions to physics and meteorology. Her research enabled India to make accurate weather forecasts and paved the way for the country to harness renewable energy.
Anna Mani, also known as the “Weather Woman of India,” was the seventh of eight children.
She also assisted physicist and Professor C V Raman in his research on the optical properties of ruby and diamond.
She earned a B.Sc Honours degree in physics and chemistry from P Pachaiyappas College in Chennai in 1939 and went on to publish five research papers.
She enrolled at Imperial College, London, in 1945 to pursue graduate studies in physics.
Anna Mani returned from London in 1948 and joined the India Meteorological Department in Pune, where she was in charge of arranging meteorological instruments.
Anna Mani later rose through the ranks to become the Deputy Director General of the India Meteorological Department, as well as holding several key positions in the United Nations World Meteorological Organization.
She received the INSA K. R. Ramanathan Medal in 1987 for her outstanding contributions to science.
Following her retirement, Anna Mani was appointed as a trustee of the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore. She also founded a company that produced solar and wind energy devices.
The Nationalist Movement and Mahatma Gandhi were always sources of inspiration for Anna Mani. She was so inspired that she only wore khadi clothes after that. Her life story was inspiring even before she started college. She read nearly all the Malayalam books in the public library when she was only eight years old, and she read all the English books by the time she was twelve. Her book-reading routine had a significant impact on her career thoughts and motivations.
Anna Mani was an early supporter of alternative energy sources. Throughout the 1950s, she established a network of solar radiation monitoring stations and published several papers on the measurement of sustainable energy.
