Gagandeep kang

Question:Who became first Indian woman to be elected as Royal Society Fellow?
(a) Gangandeep Kang
(b) Nita Ahuja
(c) Needhi Bhalla
(d) Sangeeta N. Bhatia
Answer:(a)
Related facts:

  • Fifty-one eminent scientists were elected as Fellows of the Royal Society on April 16, along with 10 new Foreign Members and one Honorary Fellow for their exceptional contributions to science.
  • Among these are Gagandeep Kang, who is now with the Translational health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad.
  • Dr. Kang is the First Indian Woman to be elected to the Fellow of the Royal Society.
  • Princeton professors Manjul Bhargava and Akshay Venkatesh have also been elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society of London.

The Council and Fellow of the Royal Society of London:

  • Founded on November 28, 1660, the society recognises, promotes, and supports excellence in science and encourages the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.
  • It is the oldest scientific academy the world which has been working continuously for 360 year.

First Indian:

  • Parsi-born Ardaseer Coursetjee Wadia, an Indian Shipbuilder and engineer belonging to the Wadia ship building family, was the first Indian to be elected a Royal Society Fellow, way back in 1841.
  • Since then, there have been a few male scentists from india to follow the line, notably Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918), and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944), but sadly, no female scientist.

Gangandeep Kang:

  • Kang is a leading scientist in India and her main research Focus is on viral infections in Children, and the testing of rotaviral vaccines.
  • With over 300 scientific research papers, she saves on the editorial boards for several journals.

Other India scientists elected Royal Society Fellows in 2019:

  • Gurdyal Besra : Bandrick Professor of Microbial Physiology and Chemistry, University of Birmingham.
  • Manjul Bhargava : Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University.
  • Anant Parekh : Professor of Physiology, University of Oxford.
  • Akshay Venkatesh : Professor of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study, US.

Links:
https://royalsociety.org/news/2019/04/royal-society-announces-2019-fellows/