Anna Mani Birthday: Google honours 'Weather Woman of India' with special Doodle

Anna Mani Birthday:  Google on Tuesday honoured Anna Modayil Mani on her 104th birthday with a unique Doodle. Anna Mani was a meteorologist. She was one of the first female scientists in India and was named the 'Weather Woman of India'.

She served as Deputy Director General of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and held several key positions in the United Nations World Meteorological Organization. She was bestowed with the INSA KR Ramanathan Medal for her remarkable contributions to science in 1987.

Anna Mani Early Life

Anna Mani was born on August 23, 1918 in Kerala. Since her childhood, she was fond of books and remained an avid reader all her life. At 12 years of age, she had read almost every book at her local library.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Science with honors in physics and chemistry from Presidency College, Madras. Later for a year, she taught at Women’s Christian College (WCC), from where she completed her Intermediate Science course. She won a scholarship for post-graduate studies and studied spectroscopy under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Sir CV Raman specialising in diamonds and rubies.

After completing her Ph.D., Mani published five papers between 1942 and 1945. She later specialized in meteorological instrumentation at Imperial College, London.
In 1948, she returned to India in1948 and began working for the IMD where she aided in manufacturing indigenous weather instruments.

With her hard work, she became the head of the division and excelled in the male-dominated field. More than 100 weather instrument designs were simplified and standardized for production under her leadership in the department.

She was appointed a Trustee of the Raman Research Institute (Bangalore) post her retirement. Later, she established a company that manufactured solar and wind energy devices.

Throughout her life, she inspired women of our nation by working tirelessly for the greater cause and creating history. She paved the way for women to upfront the space field.