‘Need to motivate more women to get into scientific fields’
NEWDELHI: Aditi Sen De is working to make the banking system secure using quantum cryptography, a science that relies more on physics, rather than mathematics, as a key aspect of its security model. She is the only woman among 33 scientists who were awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prize for 2016-18 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week. De, 44, is also the only woman to have received the award in the Physical Sciences category since its inception in 1958.
Apart from writing or solving codes, she looks for material with properties that can be used to develop a quantum computer.
“No country in the world has a quantum computer, but when they have one, they will be able to break all the codes protecting data today. We need to work towards creating an indigenous quantum computer and codes that cannot be broken by a future computer,” said De.
De has faced hurdles because of her gender. “Women in physics are a rarity across the globe, I am often the only woman giving a talk at conferences. I do projects with my husband, and I feel the disparity the most when people interview me with him... I always have to answer more questions to show I’m as capable as him,” said De.
SSB, the most prestigious science award in the country, has been bestowed on scientists in seven disciplines since 1958. So far, only 17 women have won the award, compared to 531 men.
“This proportion is skewed across the globe for all top awards... Even though more effort is now being made to increase the number of women in science, when we look at the cumulative number of awardees, the numbers are likely to still be skewed,” said K VijayRaghavan, principal scientific advisor, government of India. Renu Swarup, secretary of the department of biotechnology, agrees that there is need to motivate women to go into scientific fields.