2023 WEBINAR AND CEREMONY

Inspiring and Mentoring

Overview by Preeti Verghese and Poornima Balasubramanyam

The theme for the 2023 webinar is Inspiring and Mentoring Women in STEM. Our speakers include a renowned woman scientist, a technology thought leader, and a young scientist who is breaking new ground mentoring young minds in the reaches of rural India. Along with hearing from these inspiring leaders, we will meet this year’s JTF prize winner Tanishka Kabra.

Keynote by Vidita Vaidya

Science journalist Nandita Jayaraj talks to renowned scientist Vidita Vaidya. The conversation touches on Vidita’s youthful discovery of STEM fields, her own STEM journey, and her deep passion and commitment to both her field of research and to mentoring.

Dr. Vidita Vaidya is Professor and Chair at the Dept of Biological Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Her primary research is in the neurobiology of emotion and how it is modulated by life experience and psychotropic drugs. Her scientific contributions have been recognized by the Bhatnagar Award, the InfoSys Prize and the Mentoring Award from Nature. In addition to being an eminent neuroscientist, she is passionate about communicating science to a broad audience, and about fostering engagement of women in STEM.

Nandita Jayaraj is a science communicator, journalist and author. She is the co-founder of LifeofScience.org, an independent science media project highlighting the experiences of Indian women in science.  She is also the co-author, with Ashima Dogra, of the upcoming book “Lab Hopping” published by Penguin Books on a remarkable journey across India’s science laboratories in pursuit of the true story behind the gender gap.

Talk by Dr. Darshna Joshi

Nandita Jayaraj continues to shine the light for us with an insightful conversation with physicist and STEM social entrepreneur Dr. Darshana Joshi, who's deeply inspiring personal story captivated us. We are eager for you to hear her personal journey from a child of a small rural family in Uttarkhand to her inspiring present work mentoring and engaging with rural youth in STEM education.

Dr. Darshana Joshi is the co-founder and chief executive officer of VigyanShaala International. A passionate physicist, mentor and social entrepreneur, Dr Joshi is committed to recalibrating the gender balance in STEM disciplines. She is presently building India's largest digital ecosystem for affordable mentoring and coaching at scale for every aspiring #GirlInSTEM at program Kalpana. Dr Joshi is keenly interested in designing low-cost pedagogical tools to promote interdisciplinary thinking and problem solving among youth from the most marginalized communities.

Dr. Joshi holds a BSc in Physics from Miranda House and Master's in Materials Science from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. Later, she obtained a PhD in Physics from Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. For her doctoral work she was awarded the prestigious Schlumberger Foundation's Faculty for the Future Fellowship awarded to women from developing countries. Towards the end of her PhD she became the first Indian woman to be elected the President of Graduate Union, the primary representative body of postgraduate students at the University of Cambridge. For her work at VigyanShaala, Dr Joshi has been recognized by Niti Aayog, Government of India with the Women Transforming India Award 2021.

Talk by Geetha Kannan

Our next speaker Geetha Kannan shines a thoughtful light on the issues in reducing barriers to success for women in tech. She brings the weight of her immense experience in technology to important issues in diversity hiring and helping women climb the career pyramids they face.

Geetha Kannan is an accomplished entrepreneurial leader and a pioneering voice in India for gender inclusivity in technology. She is an industry veteran with more than 30 years of global experience spanning across leadership roles at Infosys, ANZ and Anita B.org. She is currently the founder and CEO of Wequity, an India-based startup which focuses on stemming the leaking pipeline of women in tech. She has been on the panel of judges for multiple business awards (GLOMO, Community Business, ACM India).

Most recently she has been a Member of ACM India External Engagements Committee whose goal is to scale efforts to advance computing in India. She has been widely recognized as a thought leader, including awards and recognitions from PeopleHum, engage4more, and by TechJockey.” 

Conversation Between Kavya Chopra and Tanishka Kabra

What do two exceptional women students talk about when they get the chance to briefly hang out? Let’s hear a lively chat between Tanishka Kabra, the 2022 JEE female top-ranked student and 2023 JT Prize winner, and Kavya Chopra who is a second year BTech student at IIT Delhi, who happens to be the 2021 JEE female top-ranked student and the 2022 JT Prize winner.

Kavya Chopra is the first winner of the Joy Thomas Prize in 2022. She completed her schooling from Delhi Public School and is presently a CSE sophomore at IIT Delhi. She is passionate about discovering new things, especially learning about up-and-coming domains in technology. She can be found, coffee in hand, reading or listening to Bollywood music.

Tanishka Kabra is the female topper of JEE Advanced 2022 (All-India Rank 16). She is a silver medal winner in the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO). Currently pursuing a BTech in Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Tanishka loves music and writes songs in her spare time.