‘People Come up with Labels, I Enjoy the Work I do’

Gagandeep Kang is an interdisciplinary researcher famed for her work on enteric infections. She was part of the teams responsible for the development of two Indian rotavirus vaccines, Rotavac and Rotasiil, and has worked extensively on viruses that cause different types of diarrheal diseases and on typhoid surveillance networks. She completed her MBBS in 1987, […]

Making Things Work: 75 Years of Mechanical Engineering

Research and teaching aside, the Department has also contributed to the creation of many new programmes and centres on campus   Times were tough for IISc in the 1930s. It faced a serious cash crunch – income from both the Mysore Government and JN Tata’s Bombay properties had dwindled. World War II was looming on […]

Women and the Institute

On the day IISc first opened its doors to students, as the Institute’s Annual Report for 1911 tells us, one hostel block was ready for occupation. What the Annual Report doesn’t mention, however, is that the “students’ hostel” was only meant for men. In 1909, plans had been made for staff quarters, two blocks of […]

The Colourful Life of Violet

Violet Bajaj, a contemporary of Anna Mani and Rajeswari Chatterjee, talks about her years at the Institute and beyond Violet Bajaj is 101 years old. She sits in her room before dinner, with the Gerald Seymour thriller she is currently reading on the table before her. Reading is her favourite hobby, and a low cupboard […]

Remembering My Long Association with the Institute

The mathematician and first woman to be dean at IISc on wearing many hats I was exhausted after facing an interview for the PhD programme at IISc’s Applied Mathematics Department [now called the Department of Mathematics], that lasted for more than three hours. Having lost hope, my father was ready to take me back home […]

Rediscovery is a Prelude to Discovery

A computational linguist-turned-information theorist talks about the nature of research I was a Sanskrit Lecturer at Maharani’s College and BES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, while also carrying out research in language processing systems and information processing. This research was carried out in Maharani’s College in collaboration with Bangalore University. One day, I read […]

Maths Department Hosts Annual Conference of Indian Women in Mathematics

“It’s not that women are not ready for science – society is not ready for women, but projects this onto them,” said renowned mathematician Sujatha Ramdorai at a recent panel discussion at IISc titled ‘Women in Mathematics: Perspectives from Science and Mathematics’. The panel was organised as part of the three-day annual conference of the […]