Rajammal Packiyanathan Devadas (7 April 1919 – 17 March 2002) was an Indian

nutritionist A nutritionist is a person who advises others on matters of food and nutrition and their impacts on health. Some people specialize in particular areas, such as sports nutrition, public health, or animal nutrition, among other disciplines. In many ...

, educationist and a former chancellor of Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, popularly known as ''Avinashilingam Deemed University''. She was a member of the State Planning Commission of Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu Commission for Women and the elected vice president of the

World Food Conference The first World Food Conference was held in Rome in 1974 (5-16 November) by the United Nations under the auspices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in the wake of the devastating famine in Bangladesh in the preceding two years. ...

. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

in 1992.

Biography

Rajammal Packiyanathan, born on 7 April 1919 to Muthiah Packiyanathan and Sornammal, in

Chengam Chengam or ''Chengamma'' as on British records, is an important market town and a taluk headquarter in the Foot hills of Eastern ghats in Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu, India. Chengam is the gateway to the Chengam pass in the Eastern gha ...

, North Arcot District (present

Tiruvannamalai district Tiruvannamalai district (previously known as Central Arcot, Tiruvannamalai Sambhuvarayar District) is the largest and one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu, in South India. It was formed in the year 1989 through the bifurcation of ...

) in the south Indian state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

, graduated in science from Queen Mary's College, Chennai in 1944 after which secured a master's degree in science (1948), a master's degree in arts (1949) and a doctoral degree in philosophy (1950) from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. Rajammal published several books and articles on the topics of nutrition and education and was the author of a book on

T. S. Avinashilingam Chettiar Tiruppur Subrahmanya Avinashilingam Chettiar (5 May 1903 – 21 November 1991) was an Indian lawyer, politician, freedom-fighter and Gandhian. He served as the Education Minister of Madras Presidency from 1946 to 1949 and was responsible f ...

. She was an honorary Colonel of the

and

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

chapters of the

National Cadet Corps National Cadet Corps may refer to: *Bangladesh National Cadet Corps * National Cadet Corps (Ghana) *National Cadet Corps (India) * National Cadet Corps (Pakistan) *National Cadet Corps (Singapore) *National Cadet Corps (Sri Lanka) The Nation ...

and a member of the Gandhigram Institute Rural Health and Family Planning,

National Literacy Mission National Education Mission (Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan) was launched in 2018. It was allocated a budget of in 2019 Interim Union Budget of India. Samagra Shiksha is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school ...

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

Sigma Delta Epsilon Graduate Women in Science (GWIS), formerly known as Sigma Delta Epsilon Graduate Women in Science (SDE-GWIS), is an international organization for women in science, first established in 1921 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, United State ...

, Omicron Nu, and Phi Upsilon Omicron. She served as the president of the Nutrition Society of India from 1987 to 1991.

Awards and honours

* Recipient of doctoral degree (honoris Causea) from

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture & Technology (CSAUA&T) is an agricultural university at Kanpur in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is named after the Indian revolutionary Chandrashekhar Azad. Besides Kanpur, it also has con ...

and

University of Ulster sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

. * The Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of the

in 1992 * Seceived the

Jamnalal Bajaj Award Jamnalal Bajaj Award is an Indian award, for promoting Gandhian values, community service and social development. Established in 1978, by the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation of Bajaj Group, it is given annually in four categories, and usually presente ...

in 1998. * She was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the International Union of Nutritional Science (IUNS) at the 17th Congress in Vienna Austria 2001.

References

External links

Biography

Awards and honours

See also

References

External links