Vimla Virmani

Vimla Virmani (12 April 1919 – November 1999), also seen as Vimala Virmani, was an Indian neurologist. In 1978, she became the first woman to serve as president of the Neurological Society of India.

Early life Virmani was born in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad, Pakistan), the daughter of Hakim Rai. She was educated at home. She earned a master's degree in psychology by taking classes informally at the Forman Christian College in Lahore. She attended Khalsa College in Amritsar and earned a medical degree at Grant Medical College. She pursued further studies on a year's fellowship in London in 1961 and 1962.

Career Virmani was a researcher with the Indian Council of Medical Research, She was a professor of neurology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) from 1964, and head of the neurology department from 1975 to 1979. She was a visiting professor of neurology at the Neurological Institute in Montreal in 1969 and 1970, and spinal muscular atrophy.

In 1978, Virmani became the first woman to serve as president of the Neurological Society of India. In 1975, she attended the Asian and Oceanian Congress of Neurology in Bangkok, and was national advisor to the WHO/IAMS Seminar on Epilepsy in Bangalore. She was named a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1976. Among the recipients of the Vimla Virmani Award have been M. V. Padma Srivastava and Manas Kumar Mandal.