Edavaleth Kakkat Janaki Ammal

D.Sc. (1931, Michigan), Founder Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Winner of Padmashri Award. Was a renowned botanist and plant cytologist who made significant contributions to genetics, evolution, phytogeography and ethnobotany.

An excerpt from the publication "Edavaleth Kakkat Janaki Ammal":
"Janaki Ammal was born in the year 1897, in Tellichery, Kerala, in a cultured middle class family. Her father was a sub-judge in what was then the Madras Presidency. She had six brothers and five sisters. After schooling in Tellichery, she moved to Madras where she obtained the bachelor’s degree from Queen Mary’s College, and an honours degree in Botany from Presidency College in 1921. She then taught at Women’s Christian College (WCC), Madras, with a sojourn as a Barbour Scholar at the University of Michigan in the USA where she obtained her master’s degree in 1925. Returning to India, she continued to teach at the WCC, but went to Michigan again as the first Oriental Barbour Fellow and obtained her D.Sc. in 1931."