Meet India’s Pioneering Mathematician, Ushadevi Bhosle
Source: Indian Academy of Sciences
Dr Ushadevi Bhosle must be celebrated among countless other women in mathematics for leading the way for future generations of young girls to venture into a predominantly male-led field, with their heads held high.
Born in Dhule, India on 3rd March 1949, seventy-two-year-old Ushadevi Bhosle is a mathematician, educator, and researcher. Her long and celebrated journey into academia began with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1969 from the Savitribai Phule Pune University, followed by a Master of Science degree in 1971 from Shivaji University. Nine years later, she would go on to pursue a PhD from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1980, a public research university dedicated to research in mathematics and the sciences. At the Tata Institute, she was guided by her mentor S. Ramanan, a celebrated and leading expert in the field of algebraic geometry in India.
Dr Bhosle’s illustrious career began with humble beginnings. She served as a research assistant at the same institute where she pursued her post-graduate studies and then went on to become a research associate at the same Tata Institute. From 1977 to 1982, Dr Bhosle was given the title of Research Fellow, finally going on to serve as a university lecturer as a Reader at West Virginia in the United States of America.
Dr Ushadevi Bhosle is also a distinguished member of the international committees of Fellow of the Academy of Sciences (FASc), Fellow National Academy of Sciences (FNASc), FNASI and VBAC international committees. Needless to say, her influence was not limited to her home country, India. She also served as the senior associate of International Centre of Theoretical Physics in Italy, which is an institute that is renowned for learning and research while being a driving force behind international efforts to develop scientific expertise in the developing world.
In 2010, Dr Ushadevi Bhosle was awarded by Stree Shakti Science Samman. This award is given to notable women scientists in India as a token of commemoration and acknowledgement of their enduring spirit as women scientists while celebrating their originality of thought and research in respective fields. Earlier, she was also conferred the Ramaswamy Aiyer Memorial Award in 2000.
Perhaps her greatest legacy within the field of mathematics lies in the fact that she has been able to make several important contributions to the theory of moduli spaces of vector bundles, principal bundles and parabolic bundles on hyperelliptic curves and also on nodal curves. Her renowned expertise eventually led to global recognition as a pioneering female mathematician, especially in the branch of Algebraic Geometry and associated topics.
In fact, the 1990s would become a triumphant decade for her as she introduced the revolutionary concept of `generalized parabolic bundles' on curves; a model that has been proven to be immensely useful over the years in regard to further advances in the field of mathematics.
When not engaged in mathematical learning, teaching and research, Dr Ushadevi Bhosle is known to dabble in drawing, painting, reading, music, her favourite pastimes.
Many women and girls who aspire to pursue a career in STEM owes a great deal of gratitude to women trailblazers like Dr Bhosle who have paved the way for future generations of female mathematicians to thrive in a field that they were once shunned away from. May her life and legacy serve as a powerful and important reminder that women can achieve great things, despite the many challenges that come their way.
Sources --
https://peoplepill.com/people/ushadevi-bhosle
https://prabook.com/web/ushadevi_narendra.bhosle/652131
https://www.ictp.it/about-ictp.aspx
https://peoplepill.com/people/ushadevi-bhosle
http://www.streeshakti.com/usha-Bhosle.aspx