Women in Science at IUCAA

Since 2015, every year, 11 February is celebrated worldwide as the ‘International Day of Women and Girls in Science’. This year’s theme was ‘Investment in Women and Girls in Science for Inclusive Green Growth’. This year, to celebrate this day, IUCAA, Pune organized a special programme for girl students and women teachers from schools across the city. Pushpa Khare (Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha) delivered a talk on foundations of Astronomy and major concepts involved. She talked about fundamental tenets of the universe, different celestial phenomena and bodies like the galaxy, solar system, stars and black holes. She also discussed in detail about how study of the universe is possible due to various types of radiations, including X-rays, gamma rays, UV rays, infrared rays and radio waves. She discussed about the temperature, mass, distance, and chemical composition of stars, concepts of galaxies, expansion of the universe, dark energy and speed of celestial bodies. She gave a broad overview of different significant projects of IUCAA like TMT, LIGO and Square Kilometre Array (SKA) projects. While simplifying concepts in the local language (Marathi) to the girl students, Khare encouraged them to take up a career in astronomy as more and more opportunities are opening up.