Hyderabad’s ICMR-NIN scientist Dr Subba Rao wins prestigious GSA award

Hyderabad: For popularising science, creating public awareness and scientific temper among various sections of society, a scientist from Hyderabad’s Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN), Dr M Subba Rao Gavaravarapu, has been awarded the prestigious Gujarat Science Academy (GSA) Award.

Dr Subba Rao, the head of the Nutrition Information, Communication and Health Education (NICHE) division of ICMR-NIN, has been selected for the Buti Foundation’s GSA Award under Science Communication. The award recognises and honours scholarly achievements and outreach and advocacy efforts in popularising science.

Subba Rao’s contributions

Dr Subba Rao has been working in the areas of health, nutrition and food safety communication with special emphasis on social, behavioural and cultural aspects of communicative processes. His research and practice go beyond the traditional extension research and activities and integrate translational communication science with community-based approaches to promote nutrition and health. He has over 80 publications and 10 book chapters to his credit.

Apart from his research, Dr Subba Rao has scripted and directed several educational films on nutrition and food safety alongside developing many communication materials. He authored several popular articles in renowned newspapers and magazines and conducted over 300 nutrition and health awareness programs for various stakeholder groups.

Public awareness creation involving stakeholders

Elaborating on his works, Dr Subba Rao said, “I experimented with various media and methods, taking the socio-cultural aspects into consideration to communicate scientific theory both on an individual level and policy level advocacy. I am also focusing on factors influencing adolescent food choices, especially regarding access to and availability of unhealthy food. As an outreach activity, I have addressed several school and college students, women’s groups, IT professionals, and rural populations around Hyderabad for creating awareness about nutrition, balanced diet and food safety. I have also tried educating the street pani-puri and fast food vendors about the importance of hygiene and cleanliness and how implementing small changes can make a positive difference.”

Dr Subba Rao has prepared nutrition-related videos for NIN to be showcased in national-level science exhibitions. He also conducts NIN’s ‘Let’s fix our food initiative’ on YouTube which involves the opinions of various stakeholders including policymakers, parents, children, nutritionists, practitioners and so on. He is also working on incorporating nutrition and food safety content for science textbooks for school children.

“I am working with like-minded organisations on nutrition literacy curriculum, suggesting the government to bring positive changes in food choices, making healthy foods available, accessible and affordable, especially for adolescents and the general public by taxing unhealthy foods and beverages, emphasising on front-of-pack labelling, regulating aggressive marketing and advertising of unhealthy foods,” the scientist shares.

Other awards and recognition

Dr Subba Rao’s work has been recognised worldwide and he received fellowships from the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and the Royal Society of Public Health, UK. He also won awards from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), American Society of Nutrition, NASI-Scopus, and Nutrition Society of India among others.

GSA Award

The highly competitive GSA award recognises exceptional contributions to the communication of science in all its dimension towards igniting minds, and creating public awareness of science, technology and the future. The award has been instituted in Gujarat Science Academy with an endowment by Professor Bimla Buti, an internationally acclaimed expert in theoretical plasma physics through the Buti Foundation. The GSA Award for Science Communication seeks to recognise and honour an individual or group for excellence in the Science Communication work carried out in the form of publications, books, articles and/or video presentations including popular lectures and talks etc.