Dr Mangala Narlikar, a distinguished mathematician and the wife of Dr Jayant Narlikar, the founder director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) based in Pune, has passed away at the age of 80. Dr Mangala Narlikar dedicated her career to the field of pure mathematics, with notable tenures at renowned institutions like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, as well as Bombay and Pune universities. Her expertise spanned various domains, including real and complex analysis, analytic geometry, number theory, algebra, and topology.
Narlikar, an alumna of the University of Bombay, excelled academically, earning her B.A. (Maths) degree in 1962 and M.A. (Maths) degree in 1964 with top honors, accompanied by the Chancellor’s gold medal. In 1966, she married Dr Jayant Narlikar, a prominent cosmologist and physicist, and together they have three daughters, Geeta, Girija, and Leelavati, who have all pursued careers in science. Geeta currently holds the position of Professor of Biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, while the other two daughters have chosen careers in computer science.
During her early career, from 1964 to 1966, Narlikar worked as a Research Student and Research Associate in the School of Mathematics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. Subsequently, she taught at the undergraduate level at the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1969. From 1974 to 1980, she returned to the School of Mathematics at TIFR. In 1981, 16 years after her marriage, Narlikar obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Bombay, specializing in analytic number theory. She continued her association with TIFR as a Pool Officer in the School of Mathematics from 1982 to 1985. She also taught M.Phil students in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Bombay and intermittently taught at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Pune from 1989 to 2002. Additionally, she shared her expertise with M.Sc. students at the Bhaskaracharya Pratishthan center from 2006 to 2010.
Apart from her academic pursuits, Narlikar took great pleasure in writing books on mathematics, aiming to make the subject more accessible and engaging. Reflecting on her journey, she acknowledged the challenges faced by many women of her generation, who prioritized household responsibilities over personal careers, while managing to excel in their chosen fields.