Sulochana Gadgil
Sulochana Gadgil (1944 – 24 July 2025) was an Indian meteorologist and professor at the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS) in Bangalore. She studied the monsoon system, rainfall variability, and how farming can adapt to different rainfall patterns. Her work revealed a sub-seasonal feature of the monsoon cloud bands and showed that the monsoon is not just a big land-sea breeze but a seasonal migration of a planetary-scale system, a pattern seen in other regions too. She also collaborated with farmers to develop farming strategies tailored to local rainfall.
Gadgil earned a BSc and MSc in Mathematics from the University of Pune (1963, 1965) and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University (1970). She did a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT (1970–71). In 1971 she returned to India with her husband, ecologist Madhav Gadgil. She worked at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune for two years, then joined the Centre for Theoretical Studies, which helped form the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS).
She received several awards, including the Vikram Sarabhai Award, the Norman Borlaug Award, and the Astronautical Society Award. In 2008 she was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. She was a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian Meteorological Society. She and Madhav Gadgil had a daughter and a son.
Sulochana Gadgil died on 24 July 2025.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 01:28 (CET).