Breaking Rocks and Barriers

'These trips to the Himalayas developed in me a deep love for the mountains. '

A pioneering geologist and a mountaineer trained by Tenzing Norgay, Sudipta Sengupta is one of the first Indian women to set foot on Antarctica and one of only nineteen women so far to be awarded the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (1991).

In Breaking Rocks and Barriers, she narrates her many adventures as a geologist studying and doing fieldwork in remote areas around the world--from unexpected encounters with snakes in the Jaduguda mines of Bihar and trekking across a 'black glacier' in Norway to being engulfed by a thundercloud in Sweden and being greeted by a flock of penguins in Antarctica. In between are memorable mountaineering experiences, whether it is the first women's expedition to Ronti peak in the Himalayas in 1967 or the all-women expedition to an unexplored peak, which they were the first to climb and name.

Sengupta writes fondly of the many people--strangers, fellow geologists, mentors, mountaineering enthusiasts--she met in the course of her life, of the friends and colleagues she lost, and provides a rare glimpse into what it meant to choose a career in science as a woman half a century ago.

Sudipta Sengupta obtained her PhD in geology from Jadavpur University. Between 1973 and 1979, she carried out post-doctoral research work at Imperial College, London, and at the Institute of Geology, Uppsala University. Upon her return to India, she joined the Geological Survey of India. In 1982, she joined Jadavpur University as a lecturer and retired in 2011 as professor. She continued her research there as INSA Senior Scientist till 2016. She was one of the two women to participate in the Indian Antarctic Expedition in 1983–84.

During her career, Sudipta has published numerous important research papers in reputed journals and a bestselling book on Antarctica in Bengali. She is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, the National Mineral Award, the Antarctic Award, the Geological Society of India Women Scientist Award and the D.N. Wadia Medal, among others. She is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology.

A trained mountaineer, Sudipta is the lone surviving summiteer of an expedition to a Himalayan peak that has been successfully climbed only once. She is a member of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation.