Rate My Professor Rajeshwari Chatterjee

Rajeshwari Chatterjee was a professor and later chairperson of the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science. She joined the institute as a research student in 1943 after earning B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. degrees in mathematics from Central College, Bangalore, where she ranked first in Mysore University. In 1946 she received a Government of India scholarship to study at the University of Michigan, obtaining a master’s degree in electrical engineering followed by a Ph.D. in 1953 under Professor William Gould Dow. Upon returning to India in 1953 she became the first woman engineer appointed to the IISc faculty and, together with her husband Sisir Kumar Chatterjee, established India’s first microwave engineering research laboratory.

Chatterjee taught courses in electromagnetic theory, electron tube circuits, microwave technology and radio engineering. Her research focused on passive microwave devices, guided and radiated wave devices, and antenna engineering; her work contributed to radar and defence applications. Over her career she authored seven books, including Elements of Microwave Engineering and Antenna Theory and Practice, published more than 100 research papers, and supervised twenty Ph.D. students. She received the Mountbatten Prize, the J.C. Bose Memorial Prize and the Ramlal Wadhwa Award, among other honours, and was named posthumously among the first women achievers of India by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2017. Chatterjee retired as professor and chairperson in 1982.

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