A.S.K.V.S.Sharma ( Ambale Srikantan Kalyana Venkata Subramanya Sharma)
Well known science communicator in Kannada is a former Chief Scientist of the Prestigeous Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore. .
A post graduate in Zoology, he has been communicating science in Kannada since 1984 under the pen name Kollegala Sharma. He has had experience in editing as an Assistant Editor in Science Reporter, as a columnist for 16 years in Kannada Prabha, in Audio as a coordinator for several programmes of Vigyan Prasar for All India Radio, as a podcaster for the past six years producing a weekly first and then a daily Kannada science podcast called #Janasuddi. The podcast has attracted international attention and was featured in prestigious journals like Nature and Economic Times. Also it was selected as a finalist in the international science festival Falling Walls Engage held in November 2020.
Sri Sharma is also the first to begin a Science blog in Kannada. He has also been a trainer in workshops held by various agencies like KRVP, KSTA, Vigyan Prasar, NCSTC , National Translation Mission and Pratham Books on writing science in Kannada and translation of Science and Technology texts.
He is also mentoring teachers of sighted and blind in teaching science effectively. His podcast Janasuddi reaches nearly 3000 people everyday besides being broadcast for a wider audience through thirteen community radios including three community radios in Mysuru. The podcast has cast around 900 episodes so far.
Shri Sharma has contributed more than 4500 articles on science in Kannada, around 250 in English, 900 podcasts, and about 10 science fiction short stories. One of his books (Marala Melina Hejjegalu) received the Best popular science book award from the Karnataka Science and Technology Academy in 2010. Janaprashne, another of his book received the Na D’Souza Prize for Children’s Literature instituted by the Karnataka Sangha, Shimoga. The Vision Group on Science and Technology, Govt. of Karnataka has also bestowed him with a State level award for Best Science Communication efforts in 2011. His translation of a Kannada story received the Katha best translation award in 1994. One of his studies on science communication in Kannada is published in a book the Challenges of Communicating Science in Regional Languages: Experiments in Kannada, published by Springer-Verlag.
Shri Sharma has also trained PhD students in science writing, ten of whom received Awards under the AWSAR, a competition on science writing for PhD Students held by DST. He is also an evaluator and has participated as a jury in National competitions organized by Vigyan Prasar, New Delhi. He has served and serving as a member of committees of Central Government on Science Communication as well as on the Task Force subcommittee on school education of Government of Karnataka.
At present he is involved, along with the Mysore Science Theatre Festival Trust, Mysore in driving a Science Theatre movement in Karnataka. More than 21 plays have been produced, and have seen a total100 performances since 2022, at schools, colleges, theatre and research institutions. Sri Sharma also is editing and producing a science monthly in Kannada called Kutuhali-Kannada which is distributed free in pdf format across Karnataka.
