Janaki Ammal Biography 
Janaki Ammal was an Indian botanist and scientist who conducted scientific research in cytogenetics and phytogeography. Her full name is Janaki Ammal Edavalath Kakkat and she hailed from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She is of Kerala origin. She lived during the period, 4 November 1897 – 7 February 1984. As a botanist, she conducted several research works on eggplant and sugarcane. She also collected valuable plants of medicinal and economic value from the rain forests of Kerala. She was also a renowned teacher who taught botany. Government of India conferred her with Padma Shri in 1977. She passed away on 7 February 1984.
Janaki Ammal was born in 1897 in Thalasseri, Kerala. Her father Dewan Bahadur Edavalath Kakkat Krishnan was a sub-judge of the Madras Presidency. John Child Hannyngton, a judge in the East India Company who served in Travancore was her maternal grandfather. Janaki’s mother’s name is Devi. She had 11 siblings. As she belonged to a family of intellectuals, mostly associated with administration and law, her family members persuaded her to choose the same stream. However Janaki preferred to choose an entirely different subject – Botany.
She later moved to Chennai where she graduated and also completed her Master’s in Botany. After studies, she started her teaching profession. While studying at Presidency college, she got interested in cytogenetics. She taught at Women's Christian College, and also continued her parallel career as a botanist. Later she became the first Indian woman to obtain a Ph.D. in botany in the U.S. and she received doctorate from University of Michigan. Janaki returned to India and worked as Professor of Botany at the Maharaja's College of Science, Thiruvananthapuram during 1932-1934.
She then joined Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore and worked as a geneticist till 1939. Later she worked as Assistant Cytologist at the John Innes Horticultural Institution in London, followed by cytologist at the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley etc. Between 1939 and 1950, when she spent in London, she did chromosome studies of a wide range of garden plants, and co-authored one book, The Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants. She was an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1935.
Published: January 30, 2019
Updated: January 30, 2019
