T. K. Radha: from Kerala to Oppenheimer

In the late 1930s, in a small corner of Thayyur, Thrissur, a couple had their third girl child, and no one ever predicted that she would later become one of the first Indian women and Malayali to meet the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. This is the story of T.K Radha.

Growing up in a village, T.K Radha often described her childhood through studying under kerosene lamps surrounded by nature. Quite good at studies, her sisters motivated their parents to send Radha to study intermediate (class 11 and 12 at present times).

She then went on to study at Stella Maris College in Chennai (erstwhile Madras) and managed to score a 100% in mathematics and 98% in Physics. Due to her keen interest in the subject, she went on to do a Physics honours degree at Presidency College despite societal concerns about it being a co-education system. 

The birth of a physicist

Passing with flying colours and a gold medal from Presidency College, Radha then decided to pursue a master’s degree in Nuclear Physics at Madras University under the mentorship of Professor Aladi Ramakrishnan. Particle Physics was an upcoming subject back then, and Radha was able to explore the same more during this period. Being an upcoming university filled with a brilliant generation of Indian researchers, several foreign phycists Robert Marshak, and Niels Bohr often visited their campus, giving them much bigger exposure in the world of physics. 

Radha went on to complete her PhD under Professor Alladi Ramakrishnan and even attended a cummer school on Elementary Particle physics in Trieste, Italy. This caught the eye of two eminent physicists of the time, Professor Leonard I. Schiff and Professor Robert Marshak, who both offered her post-doctoral fellowships at universities like Stanford and Rochester. This, in the 1960s, is the testimony to her brilliance in the field. 

The turning point

It was in 1965 that the historical turning point of T.K. Radha’s life came when J. Robert Oppenheimer himself sent a letter to her inviting her to spend an academic year at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton.

As mentioned by T.K Radha in an interview with the Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, “I met Prof. Oppenheimer one-on-one within a few days of my arrival,” she recalled. “He was a very kind man. When he heard from his secretary that I had paid my airfare to New York out of my pocket, he asked me to meet him and immediately issued a cheque for the amount. We discussed my research work whenever I had the opportunity to see him.”

By mid 1966, Radha was ready to return to India and expand the Indian science scene with the exposure and experience she gained at Princeton. Enroute her journey was a seminar scheduled at Edmonton, Canada, where her life shifted after meeting her future husband, Dr Vembu Gourishankar, a professor of Electrical Engineering there.

Soon, she got married and continued to teach in Canada until she decided to prioritise motherhood. The societal shifts happening around the same time were quite rapid, and the universities Radha tried to approach afterwards were not looking to hire women, especially women who had husbands with jobs.

However, that never stopped Radha from diving into more complex studies, and soon she trained herself in computer science and worked as a computer analyst at the University of Alberta’s Physics Department for more than a decade. Her expertise in both physics and computer science made her stand out in the area. She was publishing papers throughout the same time, and several professors also made her a co-author on their papers as well.

A gem who broke many barriers and achieved what many only dreamt of, Radha Gourishankar remains an inspiring name and mentor for physicists around the world.