First Indian female to study and graduate with a degree in Western medicine from the US (1886). She is also believed to be the first woman to set foot on American soil from India.
The first Indian woman to get admission to Calcutta Medical College (1884). She was India's first female doctor and practitioner (1886) of Western medicine in the whole of South Asia.
First female high energy physicist of India and the first woman scientist at the TIFR (1948). The International Astronomical Union even honoured her by naming a white-yellow dwarf star after her.
World's first female anaesthetist (1888). She administered anaesthesia in the British Residency Hospital (present Sultan Bazaar Hospital), Afzalgunz Hospital and Zenana Hospital, Hyderabad, in the years from 1889-1917.
First Indian woman to receive a PhD in a scientific discipline (1939). She discovered the enzyme ‘Cytochrome C’ which plays an essential role in the electron transport chain occurring in plant, human and animal cells for energy synthesis.
First Indian scientist to have received the Padma Shri Award (1977). Her most notable work involved studies on sugarcane and eggplant. She also worked on the cytogenetics of a range of plants and co-authored the Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants with CD.
First woman scientist to head a missile project in India (2011). She was the former Project Director of the Agni-IV missile in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).