Expanding access to science literacy

A University of Waterloo professor is bringing science home with a Bengali outreach program that makes scientific learning more accessible

By Sarah Fullerton, Faculty of Science

Scientific literacy is more important than ever. In an age where social and news media are always at our fingertips, the ability to think critically is essential for distinguishing fact from misinformation and making informed decisions. Equally important is ensuring that scientific knowledge is accessible and understandable to everyone.

Promoting science literacy is a passion for Dr. Rajibul Islam, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. In 2014, Islam, along with friends from the science community, launched Bigyan, a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to making science accessible in Bengali, their mother language.

Bengali is the seventh most spoken language in the world, with more than 200 million native speakers, primarily in the Indian state of West Bengal and in Bangladesh. Being from West Bengal, Islam recognized a significant gap in the availability of high-quality science resources in Bengali and wanted to address it.