International Travelling Exhibition on vaccines inaugurated at Science City
The Statesman | 16 April 2025
An international travelling exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope” was inaugurated by Prof Padma Shri Dr Balram Bhargava, a former director general of ICMR, at Science City today.
Prof Partha P Majumder, national science chair (Scientific Excellence); Dr Roger Highfield, director, Science, Science Museums Group, London; Dr Kunal Sarkar, senior vice chairman, director and head of cardiac surgery, Medica Super specialty Hospital; A D Choudhury, DG, NCSM; Anurag Kumar, director, Science City, Kolkata were present among other dignitaries.
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The exhibition, curated by NCSM and the Science Museum Group of the UK, tells the story of the creation of a modern-day vaccine and its many facets, with its human side.
The exhibition, which has many sections, set out the scientific principles underlying a vaccine’s creation and efficacy while capturing the behind-the-scenes work that accompanies their rapid development, production, transport, and delivery.
Arijit Dutta Choudhury, DG of NCSM, said: “After the grand success of the exhibition ‘Superbugs: The End of Antibiotics?’ This is another project where we have collaborated with the SMG group, London, for raising awareness among the masses about the importance of vaccines in our lives. Due to the Corona pandemic, it has been proved very much relevant in India. This time we had added one Mobile Science Exhibition (MSE) bus to travel to the nearby areas of each location and covered the people who were not able to visit the exhibition in person.”
Sir Ian Blatchford, director and chief executive, Science Museum Group, said: “As a globally celebrated alliance of science museums, we hope to archive points of views on existential threats that affect global citizens. Over the past two years, our curators along with those from the NCSM have been researching stories and identifying objects from across the world that reflect the medical, public health, industrial, and scientific responses to the pandemic.”
Till now, more than 18.2 lakh people have been benefitted by visiting the exhibition, and additionally, we have reached out to more than 26 lakh people through social media,” said Samarendra Kumar, DDG, NCSM.
Students from various schools of Kolkata participated in the inaugural programme and visited the exhibition. Starting from 15 November, 2022, the exhibition has travelled to Delhi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Bangalore. Now, starting from 15 April, the exhibition will be on display at Science City, Kolkata till 30 September and it is expected to reach out to more than 2 million people.