Darshan Ranganathan Age, Death, Husband, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Darshan Ranganathan

• Darshan Ranganathan, born the third child of her parents, was interested in music, drawing, and dancing growing up.

• She was a brilliant student and her teacher, S. V. L. Ratan, at Indraprastha Higher Secondary School, Delhi, guided her to take chemistry as her research choice.

• She received her PhD in chemistry from Delhi University, under the guidance of renowned chemist and academic, T. R. Seshadri.

• While pursuing her doctorate, she taught as a chemistry lecturer at Miranda College (Miranda House – Delhi University). She later became the Head of the Department of Chemistry at this college.

• After her doctorate, she received the coveted Senior Research Scholarship of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition 1851 to pursue postdoctoral research work at the Imperial College London in England under the guidance of Nobel Prize Laureate, Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton (Prof. D.H.R. Barton).

• In London, their research was focused on organic products and required a jackfruit. Darshan asked her mother to send dry jackfruit to continue their study.

• She resumed her teaching career after returning from London.

• She met Subramania Ranganathan, whom she married in 1970, at an Indo-Soviet Binational Conference on Natural Products.

• After her marriage, she joined as an independent researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) on 16 June 1970. There, her husband was an Assistant professor.

• She and her husband, Subramania Ranganathan, chose different research domains and she made notable contributions in the field of supramolecular chemistry.

• She could not join IITK as a faculty due to the prevailing unwritten rule that spouses should not work in the same department, but she shared laboratory equipment and students with her husband for her research which was funded by various fellowships.
  

  Darshan Ranganathan with her students

• She was a member of the Indian Academy of Sciences and published many articles in their journal.

• She co-authored the books, ‘Challenging Problems in Organic Reaction Mechanisms’ (1972) and ‘Art in Biosynthesis: The Synthetic Chemist’s Challenge’ (1976) with her husband.

• She co-edited a monthly published journal series, Current Organic Chemistry Highlights, with her husband.

• Darshan and Subramania Ranganathan used to host pizza and ice cream parties for their colleagues and friends at their lab.

• In 1992, she set up a laboratory for bio-organic research at the Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), now known as the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology or NIIST, in Thiruvananthapuram.

• After she started working in her laboratory, she published 16 articles in the Journal of American Chemical Society.

• In 1998, she joined as the Deputy Director at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad on invitation by its then-director, Dr Raghavan.

• She collaborated with the American chemist, Dr. Isabella Karle, who conducted research at the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and published multiple papers together without even having met once.

• She first detected a small tumour growth on her breast, which she hid from the family as she did not want to upset her husband’s fragile health, as he was then recovering from brain tuberculosis during 1995-96. It was confirmed breast cancer in 1997.

• In 2000, she and her husband registered an educational society, Vidyananda Educational Centre, in Hyderabad to promote education art and culture.

• By the time she started treatment, it had grown in size and by mid-2000, the cancer metastasized which caused her death in 2001.

• She gave her last lecture in 2000, on the topic, Designer Cyclopepetides for Supramolecular Architecture and Function, at the meeting of The World Academy of Sciences in Tehran.

• In her husband’s eulogy, he remembered the sizable work she put in until her last days. He compiled and edited the book Patterns of Supramolecular Designs, co-authored by Darshan Ranganathan and Isabella Karle, in 2002.
  

  The front cover of Darshan and Isabella’s book

• As a tribute to the contributions in Organic Chemistry by Darshan Ranganathan, a biennial ‘Professor Darshan Ranganathan Memorial Lecture’ was instituted by her husband to be delivered by a woman scientist who made outstanding contributions to Science and Technology.

• She was always seen in her trademark Kanchipuram saree and a bold round bindi on her forehead.
  

  Darshan Ranganathan in her trademark bindi and Kanchipuram Saree