Archana Sharma

Archana Sharma was an Indian botanist, cytogeneticist, cell biologist, and cytotoxicologist. Her widely recognized contributions include the study of speciation in vegetatively reproducing plants, induction of cell division in adult nuclei, the cause of polyteny in differentiated tissues in plants, cytotaxonomy of flowering plants, and the effect of arsenic in water.

Early life and education Archana Sharma was born on 16 February 1932 in Pune to a family of academicians, including Professor N.P. Mookherjee, a professor of chemistry at Bikaner. Her early education was in Rajasthan. She then went on to do her B.Sc. from Bikaner and later pursued her M.Sc. in the Department of Botany at the University of Calcutta in 1951. Sharma completed her Ph.D. in 1955 and D.Sc. in 1960, specialising in Cytogenetics, Human Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis. As a result, she became the second woman to have been awarded a D.Sc. by the University of Calcutta.

Career In 1967, Sharma joined the University of Calcutta as faculty, later becoming a professor of genetics in 1972 in the Centre of Advanced Studies in Cell and Chromosome Research at University of Calcutta. In 1981, she was promoted to Head of the Department of Botany, succeeding Prof. A.K.Sharma until 1983.

During her academic career, she supervised over 70 Ph.D. students in the areas of cytogenetics, human genetics, and environmental mutagenesis.

Publications During her career, Sharma published 10 books and between 300 and 400 research papers. She published the book Chromosome Techniques - Theory and Practice in 1965 with her husband, fellow professor Arun Kumar Sharma. She served on the Editorial boards of Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy.

Sharma also edited multiple scientific volumes for publishers such as CRC Press, Oxford, IBH, Kluwer Academic (Netherlands), and Gordon and Beach UK.

Personal life Sharma was married to Arun Kumar Sharma, considered by many as the Father of Indian Cytology.

She died on January 14, 2008. Birbal Sahni Medal, 1984 FICCI Award, 1983 Fellowship at Indian Academy of Sciences, 1977 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, 1975 J.C. Bose Award, 1972