The low number of women in leadership positions in science is a cause for concern for the scientific community worldwide. On International Women’s Day, we interviewed a few women in science from different career levels to understand the most common factors that hinder women in science and some possible ways to improve this situation.

The low number of women in leadership positions in science is a cause for concern for the scientific community worldwide. On International Women’s Day, we interviewed a few women in science from different career levels to understand the most common factors that hinder women in science and some possible ways to improve this situation.

More than 50% of the Indian workforce earns its living through agriculture. Yet, there exists a huge gap in translating the knowledge gained through agricultural research into practice. Here, we chat with R.K. Patnaik, a former agronomist at the Orissa Institute of Agricultural Technology, who has single-handedly been training farmers in a small village in Orissa in better agricultural practices.

Shahid Jameel, Chief Executive Officer of The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, has been active in science policy and administration for over two decades. He headed the Virology group at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, for 25 years. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award and the BM Birla Science Prize in Biology. In this interview, he speaks to IndiaBioscience about his thoughts on leadership.

LS Shashidhara is currently a Distinguished Professor of Biology at Ashoka University and is on lien from IISER Pune. He was recently elected the President of the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS). In this interview with IndiaBioscience, he discusses IUBS’s activities and the need for scientists to collaborate on a global level to address the pressing problems of the day.