Founder Director Prof. C V Vishveshwara

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Prof C V Vishveshwara was the founder-director of the JNP. He was later invited to take up the Vice-Chairman of the Bangalore Association for Science Education (BASE), from the time of its formation in 1992 up to the time he passed away in January 2017.

Professor Vishveshwara’s intuition and dynamic approach to new scientific problems were well known from the time he worked with his mentor Professor Chales Misner for doctoral studies. It was a new challenge that he had at hand to carefully nurture and develop the new Planetarium. Each and every step that he took would either make the institution as a unique centre or a regular planetarium with its well defined sky theatre shows. He was very particular that the new Planetarium should blend both non formal science education and science popularization among student community and general public. The former emphasis is meant for young talented students with high potential that they should have a strong conviction that their future lies in science and that such students be trained right at the school and pre university level for science career. He took special efforts to tap resources available locally and develop new scripts for sky theatre shows. Himself being a wonderful speaker, laced with humor, his scientific lectures would offer an enthralling experience to his audience. He was very particular that his planetarium shows should not be anything less in scientific content and yet mass appeal to public particularly Indian children and more intently to the rural students. With these two principal objectives, he launched activities in the Planetarium.

Science Popularisation :

Sky-theatre Shows
Scripted and directed Six Planetarium Shows :-

  • Our Sun and His Family - 1989
  • Cosmic Journey - 1992
  • Life Beyond the Earth - 1994
  • Eclipse - 1995
  • Time : The Eternal Stream - 2000
  • Albert Einstein - 2004
  • Celestial Fireworks - 2006

Artworks for Planetarium :

Prof.Vishveshwara Provided guidance in producing all planetarium shows until he passed away in 2017.

  • Introduced a distinct style to Planetarium Programme Production such as : use of artwork, cartoons and anecdotes and references to mythological stories drawn from different cultures and so on.
  • Set up of Science Park in the JNP campus - 1997
  • Introduced Science Watch, an audio-visual programme to inform the public latest developments in science and technology.

Non-formal Science Education :

What sets the JNP apart from rest of the centres of its kind is a set of educational programmes offered by non-formal methods to students at various levels, leading to a career in science and research, in particular. These were initiated by Prof Vishveshwara in 1992 and have continuously progressed and made a considerable impact in bright young minds to pursue science as career.

  • Introduced a distinct style to Planetarium Programme Production such as : use of artwork, cartoons and      anecdotes and mythological stories drawn from different cultures and so on.
  • 'Science in Action' - an exhibition of working experiments to inspire students - 1992
  • 'Science Over Weekends' (SOW) for high school students - 1995
  • Hands - on Science Education programmes during summer vacation - 1995
  • Weekend sessions in physics for undergraduate students - 1996
  • Activity - oriented programme for children of classes 3 to 5, entitled, Science Education in Early Development (SEED)
  • Foundation for a three-year Research Education Advancement Programme (REAP) conducted in collaboration with IISc, RRI, NCBS and IIA - 2000 (ICTS joined the group in 2016)
  • REAP (Biology) for UG students of Life Sciences - 2000
 
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