A Women's Power to Change the World

“My mother studied organic chemistry and worked as a school teacher. My father studied agricultural sciences, and is now a retired bank manager.” Back in high school, Ruchira already took advanced math, physics, chemistry and biology, and after graduation she pursued a BSc in Chemistry and an MSc and PhD in Biochemistry in the University of Kalyani, her hometown, located about 45 miles from Calcutta, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. While there, she won a scholarship for excelling graduate students from the Indian government’s Department of science and technology (DST).

After receiving her PhD she decided to pursue a post doc abroad. Several friends who were studying and working in Israel suggested looking into post doc positions here, so Ruchira started checking Israeli universities. She came upon the website of the BIU Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA), and the studies conducted at the Nano photonics, Fluorescence Imaging and Microscopy Research lab at the Faculty of Engineering, headed by Prof. Dror Fixler, who just posted a post-doc position. 

“It was an entirely different field than what I had focused on up till then, but I was intrigued, and decided to submit my resume,” remembers Ruchira. Today, under Prof. Fixler’s instruction, she is studying the biological applications of nanoparticles, and develops methods for optical detection of diseases using gold nanoparticles.

Ruchira has an important message for aspiring female scientists: “Even though the world is moving forward, most women still have to struggle to climb up the scientific and academic ladder. I was very lucky to be blessed with an open minded family and a supportive husband. Not everyone is as lucky. I want to tell all the young women in India and across the globe – believe in yourselves. Follow your dreams. The power to change your world is in your hands.”