{"id":86139,"date":"2026-02-05T17:46:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=86139"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:46:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:16:57","slug":"kamala-sohonie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/kamala-sohonie\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala Sohonie, Early Life and Education, Contribution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Kamala Sohonie<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was an <\/span><b>Indian biochemist<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a <\/span><b>pioneer in Indian science<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. She became the <\/span><b>first Indian woman to earn a PhD in a scientific subject<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at a time when women were largely kept out of research.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Kamala Sohonie Early Life and Education<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kamala Sohonie was born on 18 June 1911 in Indore, in present-day Madhya Pradesh.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She graduated in 1933 with a BSc degree in Chemistry and Physics from Bombay University, securing the top rank in the merit list.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite her excellent academic record, Kamala Sohonie\u2019s application to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was first rejected because C.V. Raman, head of IISc,\u00a0 believed that women were not suited for scientific research. She protested peacefully, and Raman eventually agreed to admit her under strict conditions. Her outstanding work later changed his attitude, and IISc was opened to women researchers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She secured admission to Cambridge University, England, in 1936. At Cambridge, she finished her PhD in merely 14 months, and her thesis was just 40 pages.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1939, she came back to India to serve her country.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Also Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/annie-besant\/\" target=\"_blank\">Annie Besant<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><b>Kamala Sohonie Contribution<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the <\/span><b>first woman admitted to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, she challenged gender bias, leading C.V. Raman to allow her and other women to join the institute.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During her time in Cambridge University, Kamala Sohonie worked on potatoes and <\/span><b>discovered the enzyme \u2018Cytochrome C\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a type of protein in the mitochondria which plays an important role in cellular respiration.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kamala Sohonie\u2019s most impactful contribution was her <\/span><b>research on Neera<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a natural palm extract. She demonstrated that Neera is rich in vitamins, minerals, and nutrients and could fight malnutrition among children from tribal communities in India. For this socially transformative work, she was <\/span><b>awarded the Rashtrapati Award.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She became the <\/span><b>first female director of the Institute of Science, Mumbai.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She was also a <\/span><b>founding member of the Consumer Guidance Society of India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, advocating for consumer rights.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She served as <\/span><b>head of the Department of Biochemistry at Lady Hardinge College, New Delhi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She also served as <\/span><b>Assistant Director of the Nutrition Research Lab, Coonoor.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kamala Sohonie was India\u2019s first woman to earn a PhD in science. Learn about her life, education, research and contribution to nutrition science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":86144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[5178,4894],"class_list":{"0":"post-86139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-kamala-sohonie","9":"tag-modern-history","10":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86139"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86207,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86139\/revisions\/86207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}