Over the past 4 editions (two offline and two online), India Science Festival has seen
Speaker Testimonials
We had 120+ speakers comprising scientists, researchers, educators, science communicators, public engagement journalists, and writers.
100% of our speakers wanted to be a part of the festival once again and looked forward to engaging in an offline, in-person medium.
I had a great time at the festival the whole day–both at the talk and panel, as well as the almost nonstop interactions with students…wherever I went ;-) Hats off to you for putting this event together. It requires a certain level of delusion to even think of putting together a festival of this size, let alone pulling it off!Subbarao Kambhampati
Professor of Computer Science, Arizona State University
The large number of children and young adults who are eager to hear things. (were the best thing about ISF).P. J. NarayananProfessor & Director
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
ISF is an interesting first step towards democratizing science. Definitely take this forward! More essential than ever in these times. Love the festivalization of science making it accessible, engaging and meaningful to diverse populations.Payal Arora
Professor and Chair in Technology, Values and Global Media Cultures,
Erasmus School of Philosophy
It (India Science Festival) might prove to be a turning point in the history of our brilliant, perpetually interesting, mad, magical country of ours. We want India not only to excel in technology but become a world leader in basic science.V.S. RamachandranDirector
Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego
I really liked the variety and creative angle of the talks. I also appreciate that the talks are available online via YouTube – I’ll be able to use some in future teaching.Marina Joubert
The organization was excellent. The media and publicity features, choice of speakers and sessions were outstanding.Karishma Kaushik
I really enjoyed the conversation and the engagement from the audience. The audience wasn’t that large, but the question were insightful, which made me feel that I was engaging in a meaningful way with them.Andrew Maynard
IThe festival feels very energetic and fresh, would love to be a part of it offline!Richard Wiseman
Audience Testimonials
Attendees were primarily motivated to attend the festival because they wished to learn something new. The ease of access due to the online nature of the festival enabled more attendees from all across the globe to experience our events.
“It covered diverse topics, was engaging and involved people from across the globe. I like that part. Few events like that of comms in research institutions could have included public engagement practitioners or science communicators who have worked with institutions for some time/tears rather than scientists. Moderators were polite, guidelines to the audience were clear. I liked how there was a separate session for QnA after each workshop/talk. This gives people more time for questions.”
– Festival Attendee, ISF 2022
“On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed the festival. The sessions I attended were really engaging and interesting. Zoom fatigue was a real issue, but apart from that, there is very little that I’d change about the festival program. I really liked that there were events planned for different age groups. Further, the different kinds of sessions ensured that not a single day was monotonous.”
– Festival Attendee, ISF 2021
“The diversity of the events really caught my eye. I really liked the fact that the speakers came from varied backgrounds and countries. This made for interesting events and different perspectives, many of which I would not have been exposed to otherwise. Further, while I did not attend all events personally, it was nice to see events aimed at different age groups. Oftentimes when we speak of science communication and outreach, it is limited to a specific audience in mind. While there is nothing wrong with such an approach, I do believe that there is something to be gained by having some overlap, which was exactly what the Festival did.”
– Focus Group Participant and Festival Attendee, ISF 2022
“I loved that the festival did different kinds of sessions for different age groups and for the scicomm professionals. There is no one else doing it for the scicomm professionals – so, there is definitely merit in the SciComm Huddle. Also, I hope the age-definitions of the sessions helped in getting more interested and engaged audience.”
