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Panel Discussion: Being a woman professional in STEM Our Panelists: Dr.Rohini Godbole
Theoretical high energy physics deals with fundamental constituents of matter and forces among them. Some aspects of these theories get tested in experiments conducted at high energy colliders. A high energy phenomenologist has an important role to play right from the discussion of the choice of the type and energy of the colliding particles up to suggesting strategies for analyzing the data in an innovative and efficient manner, to make progress in our understanding of the physics at the heart of matter. Hence the effectiveness of the contribution of a phenomenologist is largely judged by the use of such strategies/ideas by the experimentalists. Dr. Godbole’s work in high energy physics phenomenology over the last 30 odd years has been highly effective and has had a significant impact in this sense. The work done by her on effect of high energy photon interactions with each other, sometimes called the Drees Godbole effect in literature, in fact has had implications for designs of the high energy electron positron colliders. She has also suggested innovative search strategies for new particle searches at the high energy colliders like the Tevatron or the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A number of students have completed their Ph.D, M.Phil and M.Sc. under her guidance. She has published over 180 papers with an average citation of 27 per article and an ’h’ index of 34. She published a text book on ’Phenomenology of supersummetric particles’ for Ph.D. students and researchers in area of High Energy Physics in January 2005. The book is already in its second edition, both paper back and hard cover and reading material for courses at several universities. It was selected by the World Scientific Publishers as one of their significant titles in High Energy Physics in a poster they bought out for display at CERN to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of World Scientific. In addition to this, she has conducted various International and National projects, has been instrumental in forming the ILC-India Forum for discussing the feasibility and the physics potential of the next generation of higher energy e +e − colliders. She has been a member of the program advisory body of a very large number of National/International Conferences as well as has organized a large number of these as well. She has been and is currently a member of the commission on particles and fields of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), the International Detector Advisory Group for the International Linear Collider etc. Her contribution to science, education and related issues has been recognized in a membership of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet. She has also been working for the cause of Women in Science and is the chair of the Academy Panel for Women in Science (WiS) of the Indian Academy of Sciences. She has recently edited a book’ ’Lilavati’s Daughters: Women scientists of India’ containing bio-graphical and autobiographical sketches of women scientists. Interestingly, book written by her on physics and book edited by her on women, both make it to the reading lists of different courses at, for example, Stanford University! She has received various honors and awards. She is one of the few scientists who have been chosen as fellows of all the three prestigious Science Academies of India, the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), the Indian Academy of Science (IAS) and National Academy of Sciences of India (NASI). (There has been only a handful, about fifteen to twenty women scientists during the last 75 years to achieve this distinction). Among the awards and honors she has received are: the Sheel Memorial Award Lecture of NASI (200), Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai) (2004), Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Visiting Fellowship of INSA (2005), Rustom Choksi Award for Excellence in Research in IISc (2006), J.C. Bose Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology (2008) and Meghnad Saha Memorial Gold Medal of the Asiatic Society of Kolkata (2008). Dr.Godbole will be the moderator of our panel discussion.
V Ramachandran ( or Ram, as he is generally known ) comes with over 30 years of experience in HR at both strategic and operational levels in Indian and Multinational Companies in the Engineering, Pharmaceutical, Agriculture and Pesticides, Consumer Non-durables, High Technology, BPO, Banking and Airlines sectors. He has both Generalist and Functional expertise in Recruitment & Selection, Compensation & Benefits, Training & Development, Career & Succession Planning, Employee & Union Relations, HR Due Diligence and Post Merger Integration work. Some of the companies that he has worked for are BHEL, Associated Capsules Group, Golden Tobacco, Texas Instruments, Motorola, AT&T, SITA, Air Mauritius and The Murugappa Group. He has worked in India, Singapore, UK and in Mauritius. Ram is a graduate of Mathematics and Statistics from the Madras University and a Post Graduate from the Tata Institute Of Social Sciences, Bombay. A contributing author of a book called “India : Employment Manual” published by The Asia Law and Practice Ltd, Hong Kong, Ram is a voracious reader and speaker at conventions. He was the Director of a series of programs run by the various Management Associations in India as well as The Employers Federation Of India on “Compensation & Benefits”. Ram is on the Advisory Board for HR for The Chennai Business School and was also the Advisor to The National HRD Network, the largest Association of HR Professionals in India.
Revathi Kasturi is an Entrepreneur building Laqsh focused on Vocational Education. Laqsh is focused on bridging the Talent Gap. The Retail Industry, the Hospitality Industry, the Financial Services Industry and the BPO industry, are all experiencing robust and perhaps hyper growth; but at the same time facing a huge challenge in terms of availability of trained people as well as the twin problem of high attrition. There is a big demand supply mismatch. While 90% jobs being created require vocational skills and soft skills- 90% of school/college graduates are unemployable with only bookish skills. Laqsh will provide Quality Training for skill repair at an affordable cost and reach out to urban and semi urban India to meet the shortfall. Laqsh will undertake recruitment, holistic training and placement services for the youth. With the founding team having a strong Technology and Training services background we propose to leverage new media including Internet, Television and ELearning to scale and offer Quality education. Revathi Kasturi was till recently Managing Director Novell West Asia which includes ASEAN & India & was responsible for building the Novell business in the region. Prior to this Revathi Kasturi was Founder & President of Tarang Software Technologies; A SEI CMM Level 5 Global IT services company focused on ELearning and Payment Systems with 300 employees. Before her entrepreneurial stint Revathi worked with Wipro Technologies where she was the Chief Executive - Finance Solutions Division; heading a global software business of $50 Million with 850 people operating out of 3 Development Centers. Revathi has over 27 years of experience in the IT Industry and has led businesses engaged in Enterprise Software Development, Systems Integration, Customer Support as well as IT hardware. She has intimate knowledge of the Finance Industry having built and implemented solutions for Securities, Banking and Insurance segments for well over 14 years. Revathi received her Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in 1980. Revathi has been a speaker on various subjects related to Technology, Leadership, & Entrepreneurship at both International as well as local events. She was awarded the Woman of the year by Business Today for the year 2001. She is on the board of NASSCOM as an Executive Council Member. She is also a charter member of TIE Bangalore and is actively working on Fostering Entrepreneurship Amongst Women through TIE for Women.
Harini Nagendra is an Adjunct Fellow at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore, and Asia Research Coordinator at the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change at Indiana University. Her research combines satellite remote sensing, biodiversity studies and social interviews to develop a better understanding of the interface between forest conservation and human interactions in South Asia. Dr. Nagendra holds a PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, and is a former Young Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Her research has been extensively published in journals such as Ambio, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Landscape Ecology. Her research has been recognized by awards from the Indian National Science Academy, the Global Change System for analysis, research and Training (START), and the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Dr. Nagendra is a recipient of the first international Society in Science: Branco Weiss fellowships awarded in 2003 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,Zurich. Dr. Geeta Vardhan « back |
Rohini Godbole is a Professor at the Centre of High Physics at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and works in High Energy Physics Phenomenology. She obtained her B.Sc. from Sir Parshurambhau College (Pune) in 1968 and M.Sc. from Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai) in 1972, both with first rank and the Institute Silver Medal in the latter case. She obtained her Ph.D. in Theoretical High Energy Physics from State University of New York at Stony Brook in USA in 1979.
Mr. V. Ramachandran (Ram) 
Ms. Revathi Kasturi
Dr. Harini Nagendra