Kannada science writers in final list of Germany's ‘Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year’

Two Kannada science communicators have made it to the final list of ‘Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year’ award in Germany for their work on demystifying science for a larger audience.

Kollegala Sharma and T G Srinidhi have become finalists in the ‘Falling Walls Engage’ category that recognises individuals across the world for their outreaching efforts of taking science to the people.

The annual festival by Germany's Falling Walls Foundation coincides with the famed Berlin Science Festival that is celebrated in memory of the demolition of the Berlin wall. The foundation had received 900 nominations from 111 countries.

The 10 winners, to be announced on November 8, will deliver lectures at the festival. The event is being held virtually this year owing to the pandemic.

Kollegala Sharma is a senior science communicator and a scientist at the Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore. With over 3000 listeners, the daily podcast on science produced by Sharma called ‘Janasuddi’ as well as Sri TG Srinidhi’s column in Vijaya Karnataka newspaper aimed at demystifying issues related to the corona virus for Kannada readers are the two initiatives that have made it to the final list.

Sharma who has won awards from Karnataka Science and Technology Academy and Science and Technology Philosophy Group of GoK has been producing the Janasuddi podcast for the past four years. Srinidhi’s 45 ‘Coronology’ articles were put together as an eBook that is available for free. “This was an attempt to showcase to the world the unique problems that India has, and the efforts that are made to address them,” said Sharma.

Since 2007, T. G. Srinidhi has been educating Kannada readers on various science and technology topics through ‘Egnana’ website. This apart, he has published science-technology e-books and videos and received the Best Writer Award from Karnataka Science and Technology Academy and Indian Blogger Awards for the website. He has received a Falling Walls felicitation for his series of articles on Coronavirus published in Vijaya Karnataka newspaper during the Covid-19 lockdown, a collection of which was made available freely on Google Playbook.