Prof. P.K.Srivastava, CDRI Lucknow
Dy. Director in the Medicinal and Process Chemistry Division of Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India. He is the father of SCIENTOONICS, a new branch of science that deals with science communication through cartoons.

A scientist by profession, Prof. P. K. Srivastava had been the Dy. Director in the Medicinal and Process Chemistry Division of Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India. He did his M.Sc. in Organic chemistry and Ph.D. work from the Kanpur University. He has got an experience of more than 36 years of R& D work in the area of synthetic and natural product chemistry. His area of work had been the technology development of various drugs and drug intermediates and latest being a drug from Turmeric for brain stroke.

He is the first person in the world to start a novel concept called “SCIENTOONS” a new class of cartoons, which are based on science and has   created the first Radio Scientoon of the world. He is the father of SCIENTOONICS, a new branch of science that deals with science communication.         

He has delivered more than 950 invited lectures so far in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Turkey, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, USA and Caribbean countries covering more than 28 different topics.

AWARDS AND HONOURS:

NATIONAL:

1."THE OUTSTANDING YOUNG PERSON OF INDIA" award given by Indian Junior Chamber. Past winners include Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastry, P.T.Usha, Pankaj Udhas, Sudha Chandran.(1990)

ASIAN

1."SILVER MEDAL" for the best lecture on the topic "Development of Drugs and Pharmaceutical Industry in Developing Countries" in the “First Asian Conference on Pharmaceutical Education, Research and Drug Industry” held at National University of Singapore, SINGAPORE. (1988).

INTERNATIONAL

"THE OUTSTANDING YOUNG PERSON OF THE WORLD" award given by JUNIOR CHAMBER INTERNATIONAL (USA) to 10 selected persons of the world, annually. Past Recipients of this award include former US President John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Jackie Chan and many more.(1990)

INTERNATIONAL BRAND AMBASSADOR:

Singapore based magazine "The Young Scientist" which is read by more than 100,000 children in Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia and also India has selected him as the "International Brand Ambassador".

ACS CHEMISTRY AMBASSADOR

American Chemical Society (ACS) has selected him as ACS Chemistry Ambassador of the International Year of Chemistry 2011 and now also he is assigned various responsibilities.

Abstract:

A major portion of life’s time of the scientists/ technicians/ lab worker is spent in the lab. In a scientific lab or Industry, a number of areas are there which are directly concerned with our safety. The major areas concerned with the safety are: Electrical, Fire, Chemical and Biological safety. Doing things safely is not merely the right way to work, it’s the only way. Accident prevention is the full responsibility of everyone in the laboratory. Accidents often result from several reasons which can be an indifferent attitude, failure to use the common sense or failure to follow the instructions which result into mistakes. You can be a victim of mistake you have made and also you can be a victim of a mistake some other person has made. If you are not doing right and your lab mate points out to you then be grateful to him that he or she has saved your life. Similarly if someone else is making mistake let him or her know.

One approach can be creating a better awareness and concern. It is well said that a picture is worth thousand words. Cartoons are the combination of caricature and satire. Caricature means distorted drawing and satire means a humorous comment. If the subject of the cartoon is science then they are called science cartoons. SCIENTOONS are a new class of science cartoons, based on science. They not only make you smile and laugh but also provide information about new researches, subjects and concepts in a simple, understandable and interesting way. SCIENTOONICS is new branch of science communication, which deals with effective science communication using scientoons. Scientoons have been recognized/ appreciated all over the world by several international organizations including WHO, UNESCO, UNEP, Royal Swedish Academy, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, American Chemical Society, Junior Chamber International (USA), DECHEMA, Germany and also by NCSTC (DST, Govt. of India), CSIR, Indian Science Congress Association and many more. European Science Festival 2008 held from July 18-22, 2008 at Barcelona, Spain, organized a full session on Scientoonics (www.esof2008.org). The latest is the use of scientoons in making the people of Brazil aware about the importance and conservation of Amazon, the biggest rain forest in the world.

            This presentation is an attempt to show how these very important issues of safety can be taught in a very simple, interesting and enjoyful way.