Manju Bansal (born. 1 December 1950) has specialized in the field of
Molecular biophysics
Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in ter ...
. Currently, she is a professor in theoretical Biophysics group for
Molecular Biophysics
Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in ter ...
unit in the
Indian Institute of Science
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...
,
Bangalore
Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
. She is the founder director of the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology at Bangalore.
Education
Bansal did her schooling from
Hyderabad
Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
and
Dehradun
Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...
. She developed a great interest in Science and later went ahead to earn her BSc and MSc from
Osmania University
Osmania University is a collegiate university, collegiate Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad, issued a ''firman'' calling f ...
,
Hyderabad
Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
.
In 1972 she joined the
Molecular Biophysics
Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in ter ...
Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for her doctoral degree. She got an opportunity to work under the guidance of biophysicist
G. N. Ramachandran, on the theoretical modeling of the triple helical structure of the fibrous protein collagen. She received her PhD in 1977.
Thereafter, she continued working at IISc as a post-doctoral fellow on left handed and other unusual structures of DNA till 1981. She then went to Germany as an
Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to molecular biology research and is supported by 29 member states, two prospect member states, and one associate member state. EMBL was created in ...
,
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
, for a year and worked on the structure of filamentous phages.
Fellowships
Bansal has been awarded an EMBL Visiting Fellowship and AvH Fellowship, Germany and Senior Fulbright Fellowship, USA. She has been a visiting professor at Rutgers University, US, and visiting consultant at NIH, Bethesda, USA.
Awards and honours
Bansal was awarded the INSA Medal for Young Scientists in 1979.
she is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and National Academy of Sciences (India), Prayagraj, since 1998.
References
20th-century Indian physicists
Articles created or expanded during Women's History Month (India) - 2014
1950 births
Living people
Osmania University alumni
Indian Institute of Science alumni
Indian women biologists
Scientists from Uttarakhand
Scientists from Dehradun
Molecular biophysics
20th-century Indian biologists
20th-century Indian women scientists
Women scientists from Uttarakhand
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