Adviser & Scienctist G, Dst. Chief Executive- Science Express Programme
Government Of India, Department Of Science And Technology
Mobile Exhibition Travelling Across India
Science Express’ is an innovative science exhibition mounted on a 16 coach air conditioned train rake which was custom-built for DST under my supervision. It was flagged off from Delhi on 30 October 2007 and then showcased in 4 phases across India at 222 locations in 800 days. Over 6.35 million people enjoyed learning about mysteries & excitement of science through enlightening & entertaining exhibits. Over 150000 students & teachers also conducted engaging experiments in science & mathematics in ‘Joy-of-Science’ lab aboard and participated in several activities conducted on platforms. Its main objective is to make science learning a fun-filled & joyous activity, nurture curiosity among youth and encourage them to pursue higher studies & careers in science. The informative, interesting & interactive exhibits were developed by Noble laureates from Max Planck Society Germany. Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre, Ahmedabad is assigned the task of day-to-day operations under my guidance. A team of 40 well-qualified Science Communicators facilitate visitors and explain the content of exhibits.HSBC, Nestle & Swiss Embassy and PCRA have supported exhibits on Climate Change, Water, Food & Nutrition and Energy respectively. In Phase-4, Elements of Periodic Table were displayed on window panes to enable visiting students to learn important features while waiting for their turn. On conclusion in June 2011, it had 5 entries in ‘Limca Book of Records’. As India is host to Conference of Parties (CoP-11) to UN Convention on Biodiversity in Hyderabad in Oct 2012, Union Ministry of Environment & Forests has now mounted an exhibition on Biodiversity in 8 coaches. In its new Avatar, Science Express Biodiversity Special was launched on 5 June 2012 to cover over 100 locations in 2 phases.The train is now on a roll.