Maharani Chakravorty

Maharani Chakravorty (1937–2015) was an Indian molecular biologist. She organized the first laboratory course on recombinant DNA techniques in Asia and Far East in 1981.

Early life Chakravorty was born in 1937 in Kolkata. She cultivated an interest in science and mathematics due to the influence of her maternal grandfather. She matriculated in 1950, graduated with a B.Sc. from Presidency College, Kolkata, obtained her M.Sc. from the prestigious Rajabazar Science College, University of Calcutta and a PhD from the Bose Institute, Kolkata. As a part of her thesis work, she demonstrated cell free protein synthesis with a particulate preparation from Azotobacter vinelandii. She did her post-doctoral training in enzyme chemistry in the laboratory of B. L. Horecker at the New York University school of medicine. Her specialized training in 'bacterial genetics and virology' was completed at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island, U.S.A.

From 1968 to 1969, she worked in the laboratory of Prof. Myron Levine in the Department of Human Genetics, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. She established that the membrane complex of Salmonella typhimurium having a sedimentation constant of 1000S, is the site of not only DNA synthesis but also of RNA synthesis. Kshanika Oration Award (1979) by the ICMR Professor Darshan Ranganathan Memorial Award (2007) of INSA.