Rajapriya was just a toddler when her father, a farmer, died of jaundice. Left with no income and a child to raise, Santhi started selling milk to local cooperative societies.
In a modest home in Attur, Salem, nestled under a rusted corrugated sheet roof, Santhi’s day begins before the daybreak, at 4 am. The 55-year-old walks to the shed, pats her two milch cows gently, and the day has been just the same for the past 33 years.
“My only dream was to see my daughter study and make it big in life.” That dream has now taken her daughter, R Rajapriya, across the world to Brazil and soon to Finland. At 35, Rajapriya is now a post-doctoral researcher in cement chemistry, supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in Brazil. Another leap came when she was recently awarded the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellowship 2024 with a perfect evaluation score of 100%. The fellowship, valued at Rs 2.8 crore, will see her researching sustainable construction technologies at the University of Oulu in Finland, with a six-month stint at C2CA Technology in Netherlands.
Rajapriya was just a toddler when her father, a farmer, died of jaundice. Left with no income and a child to raise, Santhi started selling milk to local cooperative societies. She recalled, “We had four cows then, now only two remain.” With meagre earnings from selling, private schooling was out of reach. Hence, Santhi enrolled Rajapriya at Attur Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School. Her brilliance soon spoke for her. By Class 8, a private school offered her free admission, impressed by her exam scores.
After scoring 1,096 out of 1,200 in Class 12, she chose civil engineering on the advice of a relative’s friend during the Anna University counselling session.
Rajapriya said, “Back then, we had no idea about higher studies. Based on his suggestion, I chose engineering at a college in Chennai.”
To cover her college and hostel expenses, the family had to take out an educational loan. After completing her BE, she took up teaching briefly before pursuing her ME in Construction Engineering and Management. Upon completing ME, she resumed teaching, this time at a private engineering college in Chennai, where she worked for two years.
Rajapriya is now a researcher in cement chemistry Photo | Express
It was during this period, while attending conferences and workshops, she was inspired to pursue a PhD. She eventually cracked the entrance for a PhD at Anna University, supported by the Anna Centenary Research Fellowship awarded only to the top 50 applicants.
After her doctorate, she joined CSIR–Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC) in Chennai as a senior project associate in Taramani. Meanwhile, in 2021, amid her academic rise, Rajapriya married VT Kaviarasan in an inter-caste love marriage — another unconventional decision, supported quietly but firmly by her mother.
Rajapriya’s journey gradually shifted from academics to hands-on research, driven by a growing passion to engage more actively with real-world challenges in her field.“I started searching online, especially on LinkedIn, to learn about leading researchers in my area,” Rajapriya said. “I sent out numerous cold emails expressing my interest in research and my eagerness to contribute to their projects.”
However, her big break came in January 2025 when she secured a post-doc position in Brazil under the guidance of Professor Ana Paula kirchheim at Federal university of Rio Grande do Sul. Barely had she settled in when the news arrived: she had been selected for the Marie Curie Fellowship, one of the most prestigious research grants in Europe. Shortly after, she was awarded the prestigious MSCA Fellowship 2024 in Finland.
Her upcoming research focuses on recycling construction and demolition waste, aiming to make building materials more sustainable. She will work under the guidance of senior scientist Priyadarshini Perumal and CEO Thomas Petithugueni, contributing to technologies that may soon transform how the world builds.
Back home, Santhi, who has studied only till middle school, shared, “I don’t really understand what my daughter is doing, not even when she tries to explain. But I know it’s something big. I miss her terribly. However, I sleep peacefully knowing she’s doing what she loves the most.”
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