Also known as Samarth Ranadive, Kamal Jayasing Ranadive was born in 1917 in Pune, India, and died in 2001 in the same city. After years of study, in the 1960s she established the first tissue culture research laboratory in India. Her professional career significantly contributed to advancing cancer research and its links to viruses. She also investigated whether breast cancer could be hereditary.

Beyond her scientific contributions in the field of biomedicine, she and eleven other women founded the Indian Women Scientists' Association (IWSA in its English acronym) with the aim of promoting scientific education, especially among women and children. The association still operates today to promote the same goal for which it was founded.

After her retirement, she continued to actively work to improve the nutrition and health of women and children in rural areas of India.