From roots to reach: Interaction with an Indian science communicator

Speaker: Prof. Felix Bast

Prof. Felix Bast (PhD, FLS) is an author, public educator and full Professor based at Central University of Punjab (Ministry of Education, Govt. of India), Bathinda, Punjab, India. A B.Sc. gold medalist, he was educated at the University of Madras Guindy campus and IIT Bombay. After earning PhD from MEXT, Japan as a Japanese government scholar, he has been serving the Government of India since 2010 when he took an appointment at the Central University of Punjab (Ministry of Education, Govt. of India). Dr. Felix Bast served as an invited in-residence intern with the President of India as an “Inspired teacher” for one week at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi in 2015. Amongst many discoveries that his team at CU Punjab has made (total 7 new species of plants) include a species of moss from Antarctica (featured in BBC News)- the first plant species discovery in 40 years of Indian Antarctic Mission, a species of green algae from Andaman archipelago named after mermaid (Acetabularia jalakanyakae, BBC News), and five new species of marine macroalgae from India. Dr. Bast is a known science communicator in India through his writings, outreach talks and YouTube videos fostering critical thinking and scientific scepticism. His talk has been featured in numerous media including All India Radio, Rajya Sabha TV and TEDx. Dr. Bast is an expert panelist at International Science Council, Paris, and an elected fellow at the Linnean Society of London. He served as an elected national Core Committee member representing Biology and Medicine at the Indian National Young Academy of Sciences (INSA-INYAS) (2020). Subsequently, he founded India's first young academy open to all fields of knowledge, Young Academy of India (YAI) and initiated its integral program MentX which is touted as one of the world's largest "Ideological-Matchmaking" platforms. Dr. Bast is an alumnus of AAAS-TWAS Science Diplomacy program (Rome), GYA-Science Leadership Program (Hungary) and Indian Antarctic Mission. He is also a member of National COVID-19 Task-Force by INSA and Indian Scientists Response to COVID-19 (IndSciCovid). Dr. Bast is also involved with Swayam, a flagship online education programme of Ministry of Education, Government of India as a Course Coordinator. He won Teaching Innovator Award from the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India (2019) and Inspired Teacher recognition from President of India (2015). In addition, he is an avid cyclist, a runner, a frequent blood donor, and an advocate of zero-waste and low-carbon footprint lifestyle.