BENGALURU: The Ministry of Earth Sciences has conferred the first National Award for Women Scientist for ‘Ocean Sciences and Technology’ and ‘Atmospheric Sciences Technology’ to Prof Kusala Rajendran of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).The award will be presented on July 27, in New Delhi. Kusala Rajendran completed her MTech in Applied Geophysics from the University of Roorkee in 1979, at a time Geophysics was not popular among girl students.She joined the Centre for Earth Science Studies, Trivandrum (NCESS, now) in 1981 and later went to the University of South Carolina (USA) to do her PhD. She returned to India in 1993 and resumed her position as CESS.It was after at this time that she fully embarked on studies of earthquakes in India. A glance at her publications shows that she has been involved in the study of every significant earthquake that occurred in India after she came back to India (1993 Killari, 1999 Chamoli, 2001 Bhuj etc..).In addition to studying earthquakes from a seismologists’ point of view, which was her expertise, Kusala also studied their effects in the field, regarded as the domain of geologists. In her thinking, study of earthquakes is not complete until one looks at the evidence on the ground, also those left by older earthquakes.This branch of seismology, paleoseismology, provides curial inputs to the estimation of seismic hazard. Kusala along with CP Rajendran (her colleague and life partner) made significant contributions in the study of earthquakes in India, especially in the field of earthquake geology. Their joint papers on the history of earthquakes are widely cited and well-recognized.The 2004 great Sumatra earthquake and the tsunami that followed posed unusual challenge to the Indian earth scientists as it was the first-time experience and great skills were needed to understand the processes leading to large tsunamis, and the history of past events.In 2007 she moved to the Indian Institute of Science, in the newly created Centre for Earth sciences, where she turned a new leaf in her career as an earth scientist. She embarked on the new area of work that involved a combination of understanding the seismotectonics of the subduction zone earthquakes, tsunami modelling and ground effects of tsunami inundation.

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