Anna Mani

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.

About