20 Interesting Facts About Anna Mani, The Pioneer Indian Meteorologist

Search engine giant Google celebrates the 104th birthday of an Indian physicist and meteorologist Anna Mani, one of the country’s first female scientists, with a Doodle on August 23, 2022. Here are some interesting and fun facts about Anna Mani.

Here is a look at the life and work of Anna Mani.

Who was Anna Mani?

Personal

• Birth date: 23 August 1918
• Birthplace: Peermade, Kerala
• Died on: 16 August 2001 (aged 82)
• Death place: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
• Nationality: Indian
• Education:
  • Pachaiyappas College, Chennai
  • Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
  • Imperial College, London

20 Interesting Facts About Anna Mani

1. Anna Modayil Mani was born in 1918 in Peermade, Kerala to a Syrian Christian family.

2. During her childhood, she was a ravenous reader. She was impressed by the activities of Gandhi during Vaikom satyagraha. Inspired by the nationalist movement, she took to wearing just khadi garments.

3. By the age of eight, she had read almost every one of the books in Malayalam at her public library and, when she was twelve, every one of the books in English.

4. Anna Mani wanted to seek after dancing, yet she decided to favor of physics since she liked the subject. In 1939, she graduated from the Pachaiyappas College in Chennai (then Madras), with a B.Sc Honors degree in physics and chemistry.

5. In 1940, Anna Mani won a scholarship for research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. In 1945, she went to Imperial College, London to seek graduate studies in Physics. Be that as it may, she ended up specializing in meteorological instruments.

6. In the wake of graduating from Pachai college, she worked under Prof. C V Raman, researching the optical properties of ruby and diamond.

7. Anna Mani began her research career at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Sir C. V. Raman. Her work on the spectroscopy of diamonds and rubies brought about five research papers and a Ph.D. dissertation. However her dissertation included more than adequate research work, she was refused a Ph.D. as she didn’t have a master’s degree.

8. After getting back to India in 1948, she joined the Meteorological department in Pune, where she helped the country design and produce its own weather instruments.

9. Anna Mani succeeded such a great amount in this male-dominated field that by 1953, she became head of the division. Under her leadership, more than 100 weather instrument designs were simplified and standardized for production.

10. She published various research papers on meteorological instrumentation. She was mostly responsible for arranging for meteorological instruments, imported from Britain. By 1953, she had become the head of the division with 121 men working for her.

11. From 1957-58, Anna Mani set up a network of stations to measure solar radiation. In Bangalore, she set up a small workshop that made instruments to measure wind speed and solar energy.

12. Anna Mani dealt with the improvement of an apparatus to measure the ozone. She was made a member of the International Ozone Association. She set up a meteorological observatory and an instrumentation tower at the Thumba rocket launching facility.

13. Deeply dedicated to her work, Anna Mani won’t ever married. She was related to numerous scientific associations like the Indian National Science Academy, American Meteorological Society, International Solar Energy Society, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Association for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, and so on.

14. In 1987, Anna Mani was a recipient of the INSA K. R. Ramanathan Medal for her remarkable contributions to science.

15. Anna Mani was moved to Delhi in 1969 as the Deputy Director General. In 1975, she served as a WMO consultant in Egypt. She retired as the deputy director general of the Indian Meteorological department in 1976.

16. After her retirement, she was named a Trustee of the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore. She likewise established an organization that produced solar and wind energy devices.

17. In 1994, Anna Mani suffered from a stroke, and died on 16 August 2001 in Thiruvananthapuram, a week before her 83rd birthday.

18. She published two books:
    1. The Handbook for Solar Radiation Data for India – 1980
    2. Solar Radiation over India – 1981

19. The World Meteorological Organization remembered her on 100 birth anniversary and published her life profile alongside Anna’s interview.

20. On 23 August 2022, Google honored Mani with a Google Doodle on her 104th birth anniversary.