Dr. Kusum Arjungi was a close associate of Dr. Sumati Bhide and Dr. Kamal Ranadive. She was drawn to the objectives of IWSA and she had worked hard for the establishment of IWSA and bringing it up as an effective socio-scientific NGO.

She completed her PhD in 1969 under the guidance of Dr. B.D. Tilak, the then Director of Bombay University Department of Chemical Technology (BUDCT) and later director of National Chemical Laboratories. Later she completed her Post-doctoral Fellowship at the German Cancer Centre, Heidelberg in 1976. On her return to India, Dr. Arjungi was a Senior Research Fellow at the BUDCT. She has done well-acknowledged work on synthesis of Nitrogen Heterocyclics.  At the German Cancer Centre Dr. Arjungi worked on detection of nitrosamines and other indirect alkylating agents. Dr. Arjungi worked at the Cancer Research Institute, Parel, Mumbai with Dr. Sumati Bhide on effect of urethane on nucleic acid synthesis and its tumorigenicity and anti- cancer properties.  She also worked on Organ culture as a system for rapid carcinogenicity screening of tobacco extracts with Dr. Kamal Ranadive.