Dr Aditi Pant

Introduction
● Aditi Pant is an Indian oceanographer. She was the first Indian
woman to visit Antarctica as part of the Indian Antarctic
Program in 1983 (along with geologist Sudipta Sengupta).
She has held prominent positions at institutions including the
National Institute of Oceanography, National Chemical
Laboratory, University of Pune, and Maharashtra Academy of
Sciences.
 Education
● Aditi Pant was born in Nagpur and completed her B.Sc at
University of Pune. She was inspired to take up
oceanography as a profession when she came across the
book The Open Sea by Alister Hardy. She was awarded a US
government scholarship to take up a Master’s in Marine
Sciences in the University of Hawaii. Her academic interest
lay in photosynthesis in plankton communities.
Continue
● She wrote her thesis on the effect of tropical light intensities
on photosynthesis by natural plankton communities and the
nature and amount of reduced carbon flow from
phytoplankton to bacteria. Pant then went on to do her Ph.D.
in Physiology in Marine Algae at Westfield. College, in
London University. Her thesis dealt with the subject matter of
the physiology of marine algae.
 Early Career
● After completing her studies, Pant decided not to pursue a
tenure or postdoctoral research position. Instead, she
returned to India to join the National Institute of
Oceanography (NIO) in Goa, after being inspired by the
founder of the institute, N. K. Panikkar. She worked here from
1973 to 1976, focusing primarily on coastal
studies along the West Coast of India
Antarctic expedition and later work

● Between December 1983 and March 1984, Pant embarked on

an expedition to Antarctica. This was the third in a series of
expeditions spearheaded by erstwhile Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi by the Indian Antarctic Program (under the National
Centre for Polar and Ocean Research). The expedition was
aimed at gathering information related to food chain physics,
chemistry, and biology in the Antarctic Ocean.
Continue
● During the course of the mission, the team built Dakshin Gangotri, the
first Indian scientific research base station of Antarctica (located 2,500
kms from the South Pole). Pant also participated in the fifth expedition
to the Antarctic in 1984, carrying out research in oceanography and
geology. In 1990, after 17 years of working with the NIO, Pant moved to
Pune to work at the National Chemical Laboratory. Here, she studied
the enzymology of salt-tolerant and salt-loving microbes involved in the
food chain.
 Patents And Awards

● Pant is the owner of five patents and has over 67 publications in

international journals. She was honored with the Antarctica
Award by the Government of India for her contributions to the
Antarctic Expeditions. She shared the honor with colleagues Dr.
Jaya Naithani and Dr. Kanwal Vilku