According to family sources, 62-year-old Uma Rao, who took voluntary retirement from BARC in 2006, was suffering from various ailments due to which she took the extreme step and was found dead this morning.
Rao worked in the Food Technology and Cell Biology division of BARC and later served its Media Relations division.
She was also the President of Indian Women Scientists' Association (IWSA) and actively involved in organising several all India conferences and social and educational activities in Navi Mumbai, they said.
She participated in the Genographic Project of National Geographic with biologist Prof P Picchappan for sometime.
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