Dr Tasneem Zehra Husain

Dr Tasneem Zehra Husain is a theoretical physicist, science writer, educator and the first Pakistani woman to earn a PhD in string theory. She is a staunch advocate for science and technology in Pakistan, and works to make physics accessible to general audiences.

Husain studied mathematics and physics at Kinnaird College in her home city of Lahore, undertaking her master’s degree in physics at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. She relocated to Sweden for a doctorate in theoretical physics at Stockholm University, obtaining her PhD in string theory in 2003 – the first Pakistani woman ever to do so.

After completing her PhD, Husain moved to Harvard University in the US for a two-year postdoctoral research position. During that time, she helped establish a School of Science and Engineering at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, taking up a faculty position there after leaving Harvard. She has also taught mathematics and physics at her alma mater, Kinnaird College.

From the moment she first heard of string theory, Husain has said she was “fascinated by the idea that all the rich diversity of matter and forces in our universe could be manifested by the flutters and oscillations of infinitesimal strings”. Her research has focused on better understanding 11-dimensional space-time and M-Theory. She also works to make theoretical physics more accessible – a mission she sees as particularly important at a time when the relationship between scientists and the public can be distrustful.

Although she is now based in the US, Husain still works to support science and STEM education in Pakistan. She designed Pakistan’s logo for the World Year of Physics (WYP) in 2005, helped train Pakistan’s physics team for an International Physics Olympiad and represented Pakistan at the Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany.

Beyond research, her work has focused on science writing and public speaking. Husain has said that her teachers’ “dry” approach to physics in school made it harder for her to pursue a scientific career. As a result, she strives to demystify theoretical physics for people who aren’t scientists and inspire young people to pursue scientific education and careers. She gives regular talks on string theory and physics for mainstream audiences, delivers presentations to high school and college students, and runs workshops for science teachers and government officials. She has also conducted writing workshops for scientists to help them communicate their ideas, including a series at CERN.

In 2014, Husain published her first novel, Only the Longest Threads, about pivotal historical moments when new physics theories shaped people’s understanding of the universe. She has said she hopes the book will illuminate what can seem like the “abstract” work” of theoretical physicists “to people who lack a mathematical background but are genuinely curious”.

You can follow her work here:

Twitter: @tasneemzhusain
Website: tasneemzehrahusain.com

Further Reading

• Tasneem Zehra Husain, Wikipedia
• Tasneem Zehra Husain, The Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth
• Q&A with Tasneem Zehra Husain, Paul Dry Books
• Sky is limit for girls in science, says Pakistan’s first woman string theorist, Kiran Butt, AA, 11 February 2022
• Inside the life of Pakistan’s first female string theorist, Mahrukh Sarwar, Dawn, 2 December 2016

Written by Moya Crockett, with thanks to Stylist for their support.

Can You Get Rainbows in Space? A Colourful Compendium of Space and Science, Sheila Kanani and Liz Kay

Can you get rainbows in space? Good question! Dr Sheila Kanani explores this and many more questions in this incredible collection of scientific facts about colour. Beautifully and brightly coloured throughout by illustrator Liz Kay, this irresistible book is a cornucopia of fascinating information. Why is blood red but your veins look blue? Why are carrots orange? Why is the world ‘going green’? Is the sky really blue? What is ultraviolet light? There’s so much to discover!

Starting with the most important thing – light – Sheila Kanani explores what light actually is and how it is perceived by the human eye. Dancing through the colours of the rainbow (and beyond, through black, white, fluorescence, infrared and ultraviolet), each section explains how we see that particular colour and explores nature linked to it, including how some animals can see in the dark. Best of all, you’ll learn exactly how to make a rainbow – in space!

Designed to get young scientists excited about outer space as well as the Earth they live on, this vibrant book packed with exquisite illustrations will draw in readers from as young as 7, but adults alike are sure to find themselves wowed by some fascinating facts.

Did you know overripe bananas glow indigo under ultraviolet light? Did you know hippos have red sweat? Did you know when you mix green and red light they make yellow light? Let’s find out!

Order the book on Bookshop.org.uk.

About the author

Dr Sheila Kanani MBE is a British astronomer and is the Education, Outreach and Diversity Officer at the Royal Astronomical Society and is dedicated to improving the representation of girls and women in physics. 

In 2014 she won the Inspiring Women in Technology award, and also won the Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement with Planetary Science in 2020. She continues to identify new ways to make astronomy and physics accessible to underrepresented communities. She has written a series of books about exceptional female leaders as part of The Extraordinary Life Of… series, including Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart and Michelle Obama. She also dives further into space exploration with her book How to be an Astronaut and Other Space Jobs, with her latest release Can You Get Jellyfish in Space? coming in 2024.

Dr Kanani was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year’s Honours List for services to astronomy and to diversity in physics.

You can follow Sheila Kanani’s work here:

Twitter: @saturnsheila
LinkedIn: Dr Sheila Kanani MBE
Wikipedia: wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Kanani

About the illustrator

Liz Kay is a Yorkshire based illustrator who has worked on a variety of commissions across illustrated maps, hand lettering & calligraphy, greetings cards, infographics, children’s books, newspapers & magazines, animation, murals, personalised illustrations & wedding stationery. 

Liz has provided illustrations for Time Out, Radio Times, Walker Books, Pearson Education, Conde Naste, Oxford University Press, Quality Chartered Institute and Lonely Planet amongst others.

You can follow Liz Kay’s work here:

Twitter: @LizKayillo
Website: lizkay.co.uk

With thanks to Synergy for their support.

Professor Asima Chatterjee

Professor Asima Chatterjee was a pioneering organic chemist and India’s first female scientist to be awarded a doctor of science degree. Her work helped develop drugs that treat epilepsy and malaria, and deepened scientific understanding of how indigenous plants – particularly those from south Asia – can be used in modern medicine. Over the course of a long career, she made notable contributions in the fields of alkaloids, terpenoids, polyphenolics, and structural and mechanistic organic chemistry.

Chatterjee was born on 23 September 1917 in Kolkata, India. Her father was a chemist, academic and amateur botanist who supported her education and encouraged her interest in the medicinal properties of plants. After completing higher studies, Chaterjee pursued a masters in organic chemistry from the University of Calcutta, graduating in 1938.

She completed her doctorate in science at the University of Calcutta, working alongside academics including Sir Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray (sometimes referred to as “the father of Indian chemistry”). While pursuing her doctorate, Chatterjee joined the women-only Lady Brabourne College to establish and lead its chemistry department. She received her PhD in 1944, becoming the first woman to do so at an Indian university, and was appointed honorary lecturer in chemistry at Calcutta University.

In 1947, Chatterjee moved to the US to undertake post-doctoral research on naturally occurring glycosides and biologically active alkaloids (at the University of Wisconsin and Caltech respectively). The latter subject became one of her lifelong intellectual preoccupations. After a year studying alkaloids at the University of Zürich, she returned to India in 1950, continuing her research into biologically active compounds in medicinal plants.

Routinely struggling to secure funding for her work at the University of Calcutta, Chatterjee often poured her own money into her research. The investment paid off. She successfully developed drugs that were patented by the Indian government, notably the anti-epileptic drug Ayush-56 (which used chemicals from a species of aquatic fern) and the antimalarial medication Ayush-64, which was made from plants including the blackboard tree and swertia chirayita herb.

Chatterjee also studied cancer and anti-cancer growth drugs, investigating how alkaloids could be used in chemotherapy. One breakthrough came with her work on vinca alkaloids from the Madagascar periwinkle plant, which can help slow down some cancer cells by preventing them from duplicating.

Over the course of her career, Chatterjee published around 400 papers in national and international journals. She held the coveted post of Khaira Professor of Chemistry at the University of Calcutta from 1962 to 1982, and became the first female General President of the Indian Science Congress Association in 1975. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to science, President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy nominated her as a member of the Rajya Sabha – the upper house of the Indian parliament – in 1982.

By 2003, Chatterjee had achieved her longstanding dream of establishing an institute for the research and development of Ayurvedic medicines based on Indian plants (the Regional Research Institute in Kolkata, now the Central Ayurveda Research Institute). She died on 22 November 2006, aged 89.

Her many awards included the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in chemical science – of which she became the first female recipient in 1961 – and the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour.

Further Reading

• Asima Chatterjee, Wikipedia 
• Women Scientists of India: Dr. Asima Chatterjee, Indian Academy of Sciences, Google Arts & Culture
• Asima Chatterjee – Pioneer of Her Time, Vera Koester, ChemistryViews, 23 September 2022
• Asima Chatterjee 100th birthday: Who was India’s first female scientist to be awarded a PhD?, Fiona Keating, Independent, 23 September 2017
• A Tribute to Prof. Asima Chatterjee, Shibnath Ghosal, Archive for Organic Chemistry, 8 April 2003

Written by Moya Crockett, with thanks to Stylist for their support.

Professor Hao Yichun

Hao Yichun, 郝诒纯, was a Chinese geologist who played a central role in establishing palaeontology as a discipline in her home country. The co-author of China’s first palaeontology textbooks, she was recognised for pioneering the fields of stratigraphy, micropaleontology and paleoceanography. Her research helped illuminate China’s geological history, including the secrets of ancient marine organisms, and supported the exploration of energy resources.

Hao was born in 1920 in Hubei, central China. She studied geology at National Southwest Association University before completing a postgraduate degree in stratigraphic palaeontology (which combines the study of fossils with that of rock layers) at Tsinghua University, Beijing.

In 1946, Hao was hired by Peking University (now Beijing University) to lecture in geology, optical mineralogy and engineering geology. She transferred to the Beijing Institute of Geology in 1952, where she rose to the rank of associate professor and co-founded the major in stratigraphic palaeontology.

Hao was a prolific publisher of scientific research, and in 1956 co-authored Paleontology, China’s first ever academic textbook on the subject. Over her career, she embarked on numerous gruelling geological surveys in far-flung parts of China, mapping out ancient rock layers in the northeast and southwest of the country. Her stratigraphic research spanned the Mesozoic (including Jurassic-Cretaceous) and Cenozoic periods. She is especially recognised for furthering paleontological understandings of foraminifera, single-celled, shelled organisms mostly found in seawater.

Involved with the Chinese Communist Party since childhood, Hao was interested in how her research could enhance national energy infrastructure. She established courses on petroleum geology at the Institute of Geology and spearheaded the production of geological maps that supported the development of coal fields in China.

Her work also took her on research trips to countries that had friendly relationships with China, such as Cuba and the USSR. She was a visiting scholar at Moscow University from 1957 to 1959, a period during which she travelled to the Caucasus and Crimea to continue her studies of foraminifera, ostracods and their biostratigraphy.

Later in her career, Hao was made a professor at the China University of Geosciences, Beijing, and served as chairwoman of China’s Palaeontological and Micropalaeontological Societies. In 1980, she became an academician in the Academic Division of Earth Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Hao died on 13 June 2001, aged 80 or 81. The same year, a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur discovered in Liaoning, China – the haopterus – was named in her honour. Another pterosaur found in Mongolia, Otogopterus haoae, has since been named in recognition of Hao’s “outstanding contributions on the Mesozoic palaeontology and stratigraphy in China”.

Further Reading

• Hao Yichun, Wikipedia
• A new Early Cretaceous pterosaur from the Ordos region, Inner Mongolia, Ji Shu’an & Zhang Lifu, Earth Science Frontiers, 2020
• The talented woman of Peking University — Hao Yichun (biostratigraphy, micropaleontologist), Museum of Peking University History, 29 March 2020
• Awardee Of Earth Sciences Prize: Hao Yichun, The Holeung Ho Lee Foundation, 2006

Written by Moya Crockett, with thanks to Stylist for their support.

Lab Hopping: Women Scientists in India, Aashima Dogra & Nandita Jayaraj

Embark on a one-of-a-kind journey through India’s science laboratories in pursuit of the true story behind the gender gap.

From Bhopal to Bhubaneswar, from Bangalore to Jammu, Aashima Dogra and Nandita Jayaraj engage in thought-provoking conversations with renowned scientists like Gagandeep Kang, Rohini Godbole, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Prajval Shastri, as well as researchers at earlier stages of their scientific careers. These dialogues about the triumphs and challenges faced by women offer fresh perspectives on the gender gap that continues to haunt Indian science today.

Our labs are brimming with inspiring stories of women scientists persisting in science despite facing apathy, stereotypes, and sexism to systemic and organizational challenges. Stories that reveal both a broken system and the attempts by extraordinary women working to fix it. By questioning whether India is doing enough to support its women in science and if western models of science and feminism can truly be applied in India, the authors not only offer a comprehensive examination of the state of women in science but also offer a roadmap for the way forward.

Order the book here.

About the Authors

Aashima Dogra is a science writer with several years of experience communicating science in popular media. She studied Scientific Research and Communication at the University of Warwick and then went on to become a science journalist with The Asian Age, Deccan Chronicle, and then a science editor at Brainwave Magazine. When she is not travelling to laboratories around the country trying to sniff out fantastic stories, you will find her at her desk, which overlooks the snowy mountains in Himachal Pradesh, India.

You can follow Aashima Dogra’s work here:

Twitter: @aashimafreidog
Website: thelifeofscience.com/ 

Nandita Jayaraj is a freelance science writer and storyteller who started her career at The Hindu, followed by a stint at Brainwave, a magazine where she met her science-soulmate Aashima. Since completing her master’s degree in bioinformatics and a diploma in journalism in 2012, Nandita has been writing, editing, and creating various kinds of science media. She is also an author of several children’s books such as Anna’s Extraordinary Adventures with Weather and 31 Fantastic Adventures in Science, which she co-authored with Aashima Dogra. Nandita spends most of her time plotting new projects whilst flitting between Kerala and Karnataka, where she is lucky enough to have places that feel like home.

You can follow Nandita Jayaraj’s work here:

Twitter: @nandita_j
Website: thelifeofscience.com/

With thanks to Synergy for their support.