Pranav Sharma

He was born on 15 April 1993 in Agra. He hails from a Rajasthani Brahmin family. During colonial times, his family was one of the renowned zamindar's of the state of Bharatpur, Rajasthan. His great great grandfather donated most of the ancestral property to become a sadhu before the Independence of India. His maternal grandfather, also from a zamindar family, was an ardent follower and scholar of Vajrayana Tantra. He was a Sadhu and a mystic. Pranav's philosophical inclinations are deeply rooted in Indian traditions and texts.

Pranav went to Army School, Agra where he got a holistic learning experience and his old school conduct. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering and a Master's in Physics. He spent most of his teenage years with Prof. Yash Pal, who inspired him to focus on astronomy and popularization of science. His long time mentor is Biman Basu, is a nationally acclaimed science communicator and science writer.

Pranav Sharma with Mrs. Nirmala Birla during the first official tour of the Space Museum at BM Birla Science Centre.

He was an undergraduate visiting student at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western University, Canada in 2015. He visited the university again in 2017 as a graduate student to work on a book with Prof. Shantanu Basu. This co-authored book is being published by the Institute of Physics, London. In 2019, he was a visiting Fellow at the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, Japan where Nobel Laureate, Prof. Takaaki Kajita was his host.

He joined B M Birla Science Centre in 2017 where he worked as Curator of the Space Museum[8] and Scientific Officer until March 2020. He has also served as the Local Chair and Organizing Secretary for several national and international physics and astronomy conferences. His major contribution, apart from Space Museum, is his work on providing a learning platform for students in the field of astronomy. He started Winter School on Astronomy[9][10] in collaboration with Prof. Shantanu Basu in 2016[11][12] which has been running successfully for the past five years.[13][14] Several noted astronomers and bright students from various parts of the world have attended the program.

He curated an exhibition on astronomy and history of ISRO for the Pilikula Regional Science Centre (PRSC) at Pilikula, Mangaluru.[15] He also curated two major historical exhibitions on Indo-French partnership in space sciences in collaboration with Alliance Française of Hyderabad,[16] French Institute in India, and CNES.[17] The exhibition received national and international praise.[18][19][20]

Pranav Sharma with Samuel Berthet (Director, Alliance Francaise of Hyderabad) and Jayesh Ranjan (IT Secretary, Govt. of Telangana) during an exhibition on Indo-French partnership in space at WINGS-India 2020.

He serves as a science advisor to ARC Ventures, a venture capital firm. He has also served as science advisor to an Indo–Japanese venture fund for science and technology-based start-ups. The program is called ArcNest. It is an Indian extension of the 'Leave the Nest' program with ARC Ventures.[21][22]

He currently serves as the Science Historian at The French Institute in India, New Delhi.

He was the editor of the Taj Literature Festival held in Agra in 2013. He is also the co-founder of Agra Book Club. He has acted in several plays and has been part of Ranglok Theatre.[23] He is a poet who writes in Urdu, Hindi, and English. He is widely regarded for his interdisciplinary work on astronomy and poetry which can also be seen in the Space Museum curated by him in Hyderabad.[24] He is currently curating a poetry anthology on astronomy and space sciences.