As chief bioscientist and director of science content at The Franklin Institute, Dr Jayatri Das brings science to audiences of all ages and knowledge levels.
The Franklin Institute is one of the oldest and most highly regarded science centres in the US, and the most visited museum in Pennsylvania.
Das joined the Institute as a senior exhibit and program developer in 2006, before being appointed chief bioscientist in 2012. She led the development of several exhibitions, including the national award-winning project “Your Brain”, which explored the neuroscience and psychology of the human brain, and the acclaimed exhibition “SportsZone”, which brought together the science of the human body with the laws of motion, and technical innovation through interactive exhibits.
She is responsible for numerous in-person and virtual programming initiatives which seek to advance engagement in science education, covering topics such as materials science, nanotechnology, synthetic biology and other emerging areas of research.
Her outreach projects include the School Vaccine Education Program (SVEP), in collaboration with the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC). This initiative sought to develop educational programmes which increase levels of vaccine confidence in families with school-aged children, where COVID-19 vaccine uptake was unexpectedly low. This leveraged the Franklin Institute’s community partnerships across Philadelphia to enhance public health.
Das serves as an advisor to the National Informal STEM Education (NISE) Network and is a fellow at the Penn Center for Neuroscience & Society.
She was awarded her PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University. Before joining The Franklin Institute, Das conducted postdoctoral at the University of Pennsylvania and undertook the Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.
Her work in the museum sector has been recognised with the American Alliance of Museums’ Nancy Hanks Award for Professional Excellence.