Scientist who helped unravel mysteries of India’s monsoon

Sulochana Gadgil played an important role in establishing the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science

New Delhi: When she was a young woman in college, Sulochana Gadgil jumped out of a window of a classroom once to escape from a boring class. Math was her thing, so she decided not to take up engineering but focus on her first love. She eventually completed a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Pune university. Degrees from Harvard and MIT followed.

Professor Gadgil’s work on the monsoon inspired generations of climate scientists. photo: Adam Sobel

Along the way, she fell in love with the dynamics of the monsoon, and applied math to