Professor (Mrs.) Asima Chatterjee
A Tribute
During her studies at the University College of Science, Calcutta, she was inspired by the doyens of Indian Science, like Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Professor Prafulla Chandra Mitra, and Professor Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee, who influenced her career as a natural product scientist. She started her research work under the guidance of Professor Prafulla Kumar Bose, one of the pioneer natural product chemists in India. She obtained D.Sc. degree (1944) for her excellent work on naturally occurring indole alkaloids and coumarins. Incidentally, she was the first lady to obtain D.Sc. degree of any University in India.
She married Professor Dr. Baradananda Chatterjee, FNA (since deceased), who was an authority in soil science, and became Mrs. Chatterjee.
Later (1948-49), Dr. (Mrs.) Chatterjee worked with Professor L. Zechmeister at California Institute of Technology, USA, on carotenoids, and (1949-50) with Professor Paul Karner, N.L., at University of Zurich, Switzerland, on alkaloids, which remained her life-long interest.
In 1940, Mrs. Chatterjee joined Lady Brabourne College, Calcutta, as the founder-Head of the Department of Chemistry. In 1944, she was appointed a Honorary Lecturer in Chemistry of the Calcutta University. In 1954, she was appointed Reader in the Department of Pure Chemistry, Calcutta University, and in 1962, became Khaira Professor of Chemistry in the same Department, - a chair she held till 1982. For the past 30 years, since the inception (1972), she has been the Honorary Program Coordinator for Centre for Advanced Studies in Chemistry of Natural Products, Calcutta University.
Prof. (Mrs.) Chatterjee was elected a fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India (now known as National Science Academy) in 1960. She received the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Chemistry (1961) from CSIR (India). She is the first Lady-Scientist to be elected as the General President of the Indian Science Congress in 1975. The same year, she was
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