Shakuntala A. Bhagat (6 February 1933 – 14 October 2012), born Shakuntala Joshi, was the first woman civil engineer in India.

Early life

Shakuntala Joshi was the daughter of bridge engineer S. B. Joshi (1906–1991). In 1953, she became the first woman to earn a civil engineering degree at

Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) (Marathi : ''वीरमाता जिजाबाई टेक्नॉलोजिकल इन्स्टिट्यूट)'' is a state funded college located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, In ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. She earned a master's degree in civil and structural engineering at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Career

Bhagat was assistant professor of civil engineering and head of the Heavy Structures Laboratory at the

Indian Institute of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are central government owned public technical institutes located across India. They are under the ownership of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. They are governed by the Institu ...

in Mumbai for much of the 1960s. In 1970, she and her husband founded their own firm, Bhagat Engineering; they also founded Quadricon, a bridge construction firm specializing in a patented prefabricated modular design. She worked on design and construction of hundreds of bridges around the world, including projects in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. She worked on concrete research for the Cement and Concrete Association of London. Bhagat was a member of the Indian Road Congress and a fellow of India's Institute of Engineers. In 1972, the Bhagats received an award from the Invention Promotion Board, for their Unishear connectors. In 1993, she was recognized as the Woman Engineer of the Year.

Personal life

Shakuntala Joshi married fellow civil engineer Anirudha Shivprasad Bhagat. She died in 2012, aged 79.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT: 1933 births 2012 deaths Indian civil engineers Indian women engineers Bridge engineers Academic staff of IIT Bombay