Nikhil Mohan Pattnaik is an Indian scholar, scientist, and science author. He obtained a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
in
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...
.
Early life
Pattnaik was born in
Cuttack
Cuttack (, or officially Kataka in Odia language, Odia ), is the former capital, deputy capital and the 2nd largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. It is also the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised f ...
in the Indian state of
Odisha
Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT- Kanpur or IIT-K) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), it was declared an Institute of National Importance by th ...
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
, USA, in 1976.
Travel to United States in 1970s
Pattnaik traveled to
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
for research at the University of Chicago. He worked with activity-based science education and extracurricular science activities with studies and research in political realism, youth based scientific research, and building science related educational systems. He worked as a Biochemistry research scientist until 1991.
Return to Odisha
In 1983 Pattnaik returned to Odisha and he started working with Eklavya foundation and Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad. He launched "Bharat Gyan Bigyan Jatra", a campaign with the theme 'people's science' using
folk art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...
as the medium to simplify science.
Foundation of Srujanika
In 1983 Pattnaik founded Srujanika, a science education and research non-profit in
Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar () is the capital and the largest city of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Odisha. It is located in the Khordha district. The suburban region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Chakra ...
. The philosophy behind Srujanika's work has been "learning with things around" which promotes science activities for children with readily available material. Groups involved in the "Bharat Gyan Bigyan Jatra" campaign started a science journal "Bigyana Taranga". In 2004 Pattnaik supported "Project Rebati" at Srujanika for creating awareness for
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
and
Open Source software
Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...
localization
Localization or localisation may refer to:
Biology
* Localization of function, locating psychological functions in the brain or nervous system; see Linguistic intelligence
* Localization of sensation, ability to tell what part of the body is aff ...
. Pattnaik also initiated the project "Open Access to Oriya Books", building low-cost tools for digitizing old Oriya books and periodicals, and open source processing software in collaboration with
National Institute of Technology, Rourkela
National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NIT Rourkela or NITRKL or NITR), formerly Regional Engineering College Rourkela, is a publicly funded institute of higher learning for engineering, science and technology located in the steel city of R ...
and Pragati Utkal Sangh. This project resulted in digitizing the Purnachandra Ordiya Bhashakosha, a seven-volume, 9,500-page, four-language
lexicon
A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...
compiled by Gopala Chandra Praharaj. In addition to the digitization of other 1,300,000 pages from sixty-one old and rare magazines and editions of fourteen newspapers published between 1850 and 1950, Oriya dictionaries published between 1811 and 1942 were digitized and compiled as the three-volume collection "Odia Bhasa Sadhana". Pattnaik has authored the Oriya adaptation of ''
The Man Who Knew Infinity
''The Man Who Knew Infinity'' is a 2015 British biographical drama film about the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, based on the 1991 book of the same name by Robert Kanigel.
The film stars Dev Patel as Srinivasa Ramanujan, a real-life ...
'' on the life and work of Indian
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...