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 ...

. In 1972 she joined the

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 {{India-scientist-stub