Sulochana Gadgil
Sulochana Gadgil | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1944 Poona, Bombay Province, British India |
| Died | 24 July 2025 (aged 81) |
| Alma mater | Pune University |
| Spouse | Madhav Gadgil |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Oceanography, meteorology |
Sulochana Gadgil (1944 – 24 July 2025) was an Indian meteorologist[1] who retired as Professor from the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS) in Bangalore, India. She studied the how and why of monsoons, including farming strategies to cope with rainfall variability and modelling ecological and evolutionary phenomena. Her research led to the discovery of a basic feature of the sub-seasonal variation in the monsoon cloud bands.[2]
She demonstrated that the monsoon is not a gigantic land-sea breeze but instead is a manifestation of the seasonal migration of a planetary-scale system which is seen over non-monsoonal regions as well. In collaboration with the farmers she derived farming strategies which are tailored to the rainfall variability of different regions in India.[3]
Early life and education
She obtained her BSc (1963) and MSc (1965) in Mathematics from the University of Poona, Pune. She did her PhD (1970) in Applied Mathematics from Harvard and has been a post-doctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1970-71).[1]
Return to India
In 1971, Gadgil returned to India with her husband, who was also a Harvard scholar. She worked in the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune as a CSIR pool officer for two years. She worked with scientists like R. Ananthakrishnan and D.R. Sikka during this period. She was recruited to the Centre for Theoretical Studies (CTS) as a member. Her husband was also recruited to CTS as a mathematical ecologist. Out of this, a new institution, the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS), was born.[4]
Awards and Honours
Gadgil is a recipient of Vikram Sarabhai Award, Norman Borlaug Award and Astronautical Society Award. She was conferred on the Life Time Achievement Award by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (2008). She is a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences Bangalore and Indian Meteorological Society.[1]
Personal life and death
Gadgil was married to Madhav Gadgil, an ecologist, and they had a daughter and a son.
Gadgil died on 24th July 2025.[5]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Indian Fellow: Sulochana Gadgil". Indian National Science Academy. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
- ^ "Sikka, D., and S. Gadgil, 1980: On the maximum cloud zone and the ITCZ over Indian longitudes during the Southwest Monsoon." Monthly Weather Review, vol.108, 1840-1853". Monthly Weather Review. 108: 1840. 1980. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1980)108<1840:OTMCZA>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 1520-0493.
- ^ "Sulochana Gadgil: Research Interests". IISc. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
- ^ Gadgil, Sulochana. "My tryst with the Monsoon" (PDF). Indian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
- ^ Marar, Anjali (25 July 2025). "Prof Sulochana Gadgil, who knew the 'how' and 'why' of Indian monsoons, passes away at 81". Retrieved 18 August 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)