Indian-origin scientist Gai named for UK royal honour
LONDON: Acclaimed York-based scientist Pratibha Laxman Gai has been named for damehood, the female equivalent of a knighthood, leading a number of people of Indian origin from various walks of life in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List 2018 released on Saturday.
Gai, professor based at the University of York, grew up in India and won the national science talent scholarship before winning another scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge.
She is the fourth Indian-origin woman conferred with the honour since it was instituted in 1917, following Maharani Lakshmi Devi of Dhar (1931), educationist Asha Khemka (2014) and medicine academic Parveen Kumar (2017). She has been honoured for “services to chemical sciences and technology”, an official release said. The damehood and other honours will be conferred at the Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth and other members of the royal family at various times in 2018.
Inspired in early life by the physicist-chemist Marie Cure, Gai’s patented inventions are in the fields of hydrocarbon catalysis/polymers, energy sources, electronic ceramics, Piezoelectrics and nanocoatings for polymers and food.
She created the atomic-resolution environmental transmission electron microscope and is considered an outspoken advocate for women with careers in science. She has over 300 refereed scientific papers in leading journals and nine co-authored and edited books and journal issues.
Her expertise includes development of novel chemical processes, nanomaterials, reaction mechanisms and novel in-situ environmental electron microscopy in gases and liquids.
The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List 2018 includes the names of former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, novelist Michael Morpurgo, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and women’s cricket captain Heather Knight, whose team beat India in the world cup final.