Anna Mani

The Trailblazing Physicist

This website is intended to be a supplement to the biography titled Anna Mani – The Uncut Diamond published by the National Book Trust ( NBT), Delhi in 2025. It is authored by Asha Gopinathan who is an IITian, neuroscientist and writer. You are encouraged to read the book and refer to this site alongside.

Anna Mani ( 1918-2001) was an Indian physicist who was born in Peermede in the High Ranges of the state of Kerala. Her father Modayil Pothen Mani was the first ‘native’ engineer to work for the Travancore Public Works Department. Her mother Ammamma was a homemaker who raised five boys and three girls. Anna was their seventh child.

An avid reader, she completed her schooling from Christava Mahilalayam, Aluva, with distinction topping all the girls of her batch for which she was awarded a medal. She moved to Chennai for higher education, first at Women’s Christian College (WCC) and then at Presidency from where she graduated with a BA ( Honors) degree in 1939. After spending a year in WCC as a demonstrator she joined the laboratory of Professor C.V Raman in 1940 for a Ph.D. She was one of three women in the laboratory then. After working on the optical properties of rubies and diamonds using Raman spectroscopy among other tools, she graduated in 1945. Despite six single author papers during this period both she and her lab mate Sunanda Bai ( who published ten single author papers ) were never awarded the doctorate. The reason behind this is clouded in mystery.

Anna moved to England for a post-doc in meteorological instrumentation and returned to India. She moved to India Meteorological Department, Poona as Meteorologist Grade 2. Here she started building many instruments for meterological use both by herself and later with many dedicated co-workers. She was mentored by S.P Venkiteshwaran ( SPV) who was the Director of the Surface Instruments Unit. Her hard work paid off. She soon moved to become the Head of the Surface Instruments and later the Director when SPV retired. She moved to IMD Delhi in 1969 and retired as Deputy Director General ( Instruments ) in 1976.

Her contributions in the areas of atmospheric physics, ozone, radiation, atmospheric electricity are too many to be listed here. After her retirement, she moved to the Raman Research Institute where she worked initially on helping them set up a mm radio wave telescope where accurate weather measurements are essential. Later she directed the Field research station of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology ( IITM) in Peenya, then a suburb of Bengaluru. From here she worked on setting up the solar and wind energy installations around the country after collecting detailed data on the solar and wind conditions in different states. Additionally, she set up a factory to manufacture some of the instruments. Her work took her around the globe, she was a member of many committees and an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences( IAS) and the Indian National Science Academy. From 1980-1995 she brought out the newsletter Patrika meant for fellows of IAS. She was also a member of its Council and served as Secretary for one term. She was also Chairperson of the Association that brings out the journal Current Science and thus influenced its contents and overall quality. She received the K.R Ramanathan award for her work on ozone in 1987, the K.S Rao memorial award for her work on solar energy in 1993.

As she became sick with a Parkinsons Plus condition, she had to move to Kerala so that her sister and family could take care of her. She passed away on 18 August 2001. The National Institute of Wind Energy ( NIWE) in Chennai has named their reading room and library in her honour. A special day cover was released by the Postal Department to honour her in November 2021. An award in her name is instituted by her friend Freda Cooke in the Women’s Christian College for students in the physics and mathematics departments. From 2018 – 2022 the Ministry of Earth Sciences had set up an award for women scientists in that field in her name. There is an Anna Mani Gender Equity lecture series established by the Working Group for Gender Equality of the Astronomical Society of India. There is also a short documentary called ‘ Weathering Heights ‘ produced by Vigyan Prasar in 2016.

Her colleague and long-time friend Oliver Ashford from the U.K wrote an obituary in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Met. Society.

“ You can but do your best. ” This is the precept which I associate with Miss Mani : she not only quotes it, she also lives up to it. And, in her case, the best is an enviably high standard of honesty, loyalty, hard work and achievement. I would only add that Anna was greatly loved and admired by her worldwide circle of friends for all of whom her infectious laugh will long be remembered.