World Meteorological Organization Women working in meteorology and hydrology Articles re-printed from Volume 52 No.2 (April 2003) TThhee BBuulllleettiinn iinntteerrvviieewwss Sulochana Gadgil Dr Taba recounts: postdoctoral fellowship at MIT for one year. There- Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (1839-1904) was convinced after, she returned to Pune, accepting temporary work that the future progress of India depended on at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and research in science and engineering. He envisaged an met several scientists with considerable knowledge Institute where fundamental research in all branches about monsoon. She joined the Centre for Theoretical of learning could be carried out. He constituted a Pro- Studies at the Indian Institute of Science in 1973. visional Committee to plan the set- Since then, she has carried out ting of the Institute and, on research on many facets of 31 December 1898, a draft text pre- monsoon variability and the pared by the Committee was pre- nature of the coupling of tropi- sented. The constitution of the Insti- cal convection and the oceans, tute was approved and the Order was with analysis of conventional signed in May 1909. In early 1919, the and satellite data and theoreti- foundation stone was laid and on 24 cal investigations with models, July the first batch of students was and has also investigated the admitted. links between rainfall variabil- 3 The Institute has made many ity and agricultural productivity contributions to science. Prof. Satish in collaboration with several Dhawan, who was the major archi- scientists. She has also devel- tect of the Indian Space Programme, oped models of interacting pop- was the director of the Institute from ulations in collaboration with 1962 to 1981. He nurtured science, as biologists at the Institute. well as engineering, in many new In close collaboration with areas. He was particularly interested agricultural scientists and in meteorology and offered our Sulochana Gadgil farmers, Sulochana has set up a interviewee of this issue, Sulochana farmers’ network in order to Gadgil, a faculty position in the Centre for Theoretical identify acceptable strategies for enhanced produc- Studies at the Institute, soon after she returned from tion in a variable climate, particularly in rainfed areas the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) in on which climate variability is known to have a large the USA. Her work and collaboration with meteorolo- impact. With the setting-in of the fatigue of the green gists from different institutes in the country and her revolution in the last decade, enhanced production in interactions with fluid dynamicists, particularly Prof. rainfed areas has become more important than ever R Narasimha, led to the establishment of the Centre before. Sulochana and her collaborators have worked for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences in 1982. During to develop decision-support systems, based on infor- 1989 to 1996, when she was the chairman of the Cen- mation and prediction of climate variability, for the tre, several new faculty members were recruited, rainfed belt. They showed that models which incorpo- making it one of the best centres in the country. rated the indirect impact of climate variability via the Sulochana was born in 1944 in Pune, India. She triggering of pests/diseases needed to be combined obtained her M.Sc. in applied mathematics from Pune with existing crop models for a realistic simulation of University in 1965. In 1970, she received her Ph.D., the impact of rainfall variability. Such models will be also in applied mathematics from Harvard University a major tool for assessing different management (USA). Her thesis dealt with the dynamics of the options. They found that input from farmers was nec- meanders of the Gulf Stream. Coming from a country essary for model development, as well as elucidation where the meteorological phenomenon of monsoon and assessment of management options. is of vital importance, she decided to learn more Sulochana has been active in planning climate about this mighty weather event. She was lucky to and global change research and has served on advi- have the opportunity to work with Prof. Charney on a sory committees of several important institutions in India. She played an important role in the formulation scientific interests. She says that they have enjoyed of the Indian Climate Research Programme (ICRP) the most fulfilling family life. and was a leader in planning and organizing the first This April edition of the WMO Bulletin is dedi- ICRP observational experiment in the Bay of Bengal cated to women working in meteorology and hydrol- in 1999. ogy and I consider myself fortunate to have been able As regards contacts with WMO, Sulochana was a to interview Sulochana, a great lady and eminent sci- member of the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) of the entist, for this issue. Her scientific career, her interests World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) from in so many topics related to monsoon, agriculture, cli- 1990 to 1998 and Officer from 1994 to 1998. Accord- mate, ecology and evolutionary biology and her mod- ing to several members of that committee, she was elling work in all these domains make her unique. extremely effective in that role. She was involved in Moreover, this remarkable lady has skillfully com- WCRP monsoon activities and the Atmospheric bined her family life with a successful scientific career. Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP). She partici- She is generous, sharing her knowledge with her stu- pated in the WCRP International Conference on dents and colleagues, and is kind and agreeable. Monsoon Variability and Prediction in Trieste, Italy I enjoyed my contacts with her on the occasion of this (May 1994) and in the International AMIP Scientific interview and am grateful to her for her collaboration. Conference in Monterrey, Mexico (May 1995). She played an important role in the Global Change Sys- H.T — Please tell us the date and place of your tem for Analysis, Research and Training (START) birth, your parents and the environment you Climate Prediction and Agriculture (CLIMAG) proj- lived in. ect. At present, Sulochana is a co-chair of the START S.G. — I was born in 1944 in Pune (also known as 4 Scientific Steering Committee. Poona). My great-grandfather was an engineer who Sulochana has written more than 40 papers in served as a Minister in the state of Tonk (north-west the field of tropical dynamics and monsoon; ocean India). I heard the tales of his heroic efforts to help the dynamics and ocean atmosphere coupling; climate people during the severe droughts that are so common variability and agriculture and evolutionary biol- in that part of the country from my grandfather.Both ogy. She has also edited two books on climate vari- my grandfather and my father were respected physi- ability and agriculture. This is an enormous scien- cians. My grandfather was also a freedom fighter and tific achievement, considering that she has been an several active participants of the struggle against colo- active member of no fewer than 10 scientific and nial rule were guests at our house. Even after independ- technical advisory committees, both on the national ence, one of the important leaders from Maharashtra, and international level. Sulochana is a fellow of the Senapati Bapat, stayed with us every year. I was thus Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National exposed to tales of colonial rule and the struggle for Science Academy and the Indian Meteorological freedom throughout my childhood. My father not only Society and has received several important awards. had an M.D. degree in allopathy, but also studied the Sulochana has close professional ties with her Indian systems of medicine, Ayurveda and Yoga, in husband, Madhav Gadgil, a professor of biology at depth. My mother was one of a thriving group of the same Institute. They have always shared their women writers in Marathi, our local language. I was the third of four daugh- ters. My parents encour- aged us all to study and take to learned profes- sions; two of my sisters are physicians. H.T. — Perhaps you could also tell readers something about Pune in a geographical and historical context. S.G. — Pune was the erstwhile capital of the At Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, 1967 (front row, fifth from left) Maratha kingdom that held out to the last against the British. Pune lies just to B.G. Tilak. I opted for natural sciences and majored in the east of the crest-line of the Western Ghats, a hill chemistry, physics and mathematics. I did very well aca- chain that runs parallel to the west coast of India for a demically, though Madhav, the fellow student whom distance of 1 000 kilometres from the southern tip of the I eventually married, claims that I caught his attention peninsula. The south-west winds of the summer mon- when jumping out of a high French window of a lecture soon blowing over the Arabian Sea rise against the hall to escape from a boring class! I then went on to do a Western Ghats to pour as much as 5 000 mm of rain on master’s degree in applied mathematics at Pune Univer- the hills in the span of three months. While Pune itself sity. At this juncture, I became engaged to Madhav and receives much less rain, lying as it does in the lee of the together we decided to pursue scientific careers. mountains, it is a wonderful place to witness the grandeur of the Indian monsoon and has been a major H.T. — How come you went to study in the USA? centre of meteorological research in India for over a S.G. — Madhav and I felt that a sound foundation for century. Indeed, the clocktower of the Weather Obser- a career in scientific research might be laid in good uni- vatory,constructed out ofblack basalt rock,is an versities abroad, and we applied together to four of the important feature of the city.