Google Doodle pays tribute to Anna Mani, the Weather Woman of India
Are you someone who always eagerly await the next Google Doodle? After all, it’s fun, innovative, and is perhaps the best throwback that the internet has to offer. From celebrating birth and death anniversaries of eminent personalities to marking the milestones in different sectors, be it science, technology, literature, or arts, Google Doodle pretty much covers them all.
Recently, Google lived up to its expectations by paying tribute to Anna Mani, the ‘Weather Woman of India’ by displaying a Doodle on her 104th birth anniversary on 23rd August. Here’s introducing you all to Anna Mani, one of India’s first female weather scientists.
Who is Anna Mani?
Anna Modayil Mani was a physicist and meteorologist, pioneering in meteorological instrumentation. Hailing from Peermade, Kerala, she was born in 1918 to a Syrian Christian family. A follower of Gandhi, Mani was always interested in science since her girlhood. An avid reader and dancer by passion, Mani chose to pursue the field of physics. In 1939, she obtained her B.Sc Honours degree from the then Madras Presidency College. Her exemplary academic record earned her a research scholarship at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, in 1940. Five years later, she also visited the Imperial College in London. Though Mani intended to pursue physics further, she ended up specialising in meteorological instrumentations. She breathed her last on 16th August 2001, a week ahead of her 83rd birthday.
From being Anna Mani to the Weather Woman of India
Mani earned this prestigious nickname for her unparalleled contributions in the field of meteorological instrumentation by conducting research on solar radiation, atmospheric ozone and wind energy measurements. She was associated with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for a major portion of her career and retired as its Deputy Director in 1976.
Fresh out of college, she began her career as the colleague of revered scientist C.V. Raman and studied ‘florescence, optical and absorption patterns and spectra of rubies and diamonds’ alongside him. She also attended the British Meteorological Office where she studied the evolution of weather instruments and visited many field observatories as well as meteorological instrument manufacturers as part of her research in England and Scotland, before joining the IMD.
Throughout her career, Mani was a proactive member of several organisations such as the International Ozone Association, Indian National Science Academy, American Meteorological Society, International Solar Energy Society and World Meteorological Organisation (was a consultant for them in Egypt in 1975), Atmospheric Physics among others.
Mani set up a meteorological observatory near her hometown and also an instrumentation tower at the Thumba rocket launching facility. Unfortunately, the Weather Woman of India was not granted a PhD even after submitting her dissertation and despite her contributions, as she didn’t have an MA degree in Physics.
A sneak peek into her accolades
Other than gaining the nickname Weather Woman of India, Anna Mani was also a recipient of many other honours, both before and after death. In 1987, Mani was awarded the INSA K.R. Ramanathan Medal. The World Meteorological Organisation in 2018 also paid tribute to their former member by publishing her life profile alongside an exclusive interview on her birth centenary.