Sharada Srinivasan


Sharada Srinivasan is an archaeologist specialising in the scientific study of art, archaeology, archaemetallurgy and culture. She is associated with the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India, and an Honorary University Fellow at the University of Exeter, UK. Srinivasan is also an exponent of classical Bharata Natyam dance. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2019.

Career

Sharada obtained her B.Tech in 1987 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. After completing her master's degree at the University of London in 1989, she continued to research South Indian bronze sculpture during her PhD at University College London, which she completed in 1995.
In 1986, Sharada along with four IIT batchmates codirected, acted in and choreographed for the english feature film, Nuclear Winter which won the Cannes Award in the Special Category for 1988. The movie was produced by Homi Sethna and directed by Zul Vellani. The starcast included Vijay Crishna and Mishu Vellani. The movie was shot in the IIT Powai campus and marked the launch of a successful dance career for Sharda.
She is first author of the book ‘India’s Legendary Wootz Steel: An advanced material of the ancient world’. Prof. Sharada Srinivasan is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and World Academy of Art and Science.
Srinivasan was awarded a Homi Bhabha Fellowship, during which time she visited the UK and USA as a visiting scholar at the Smithsonian, the Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Museum of Applied Sciences Centre for Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania, Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian & Conservation Department, Freer & Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian, and presented papers at a Conference on Indus Archaeology, University of Wisconsin Madison and The Cost Committee Meeting on Ion Beam analysis in Art and Archaeology at Oxford organised by European Commission.
She was co-recipient of a British Council funded UKEIRI research awards, of a Royal Society-DST award, as well as an ongoing UKIERI-II Award related to developing joint PhD. Programmes in intangible histories including archaeology and performance studies.
In 2009, Srinivasan co-chaired the seventh Beginning of the Use of Metals and Alloys international conference in Bangalore. The proceedings were published in 2015 in the volume Metals and Civilizations, of which Srinivasan was co-editor.
Srinivasan was co-investigator on a 2010 UK India Education and Research Initiative funded project with Professor S. Ranganathan and the University of Exeter's Dr Gill Juleff. The project was titled Pioneering Metallurgy: Origins of Steel Making in the Southern Indian Subcontinent. She undertook further research on technical evidence for high carbon steel by ancient crucible processes and ancient high-tin Bronzes and the surviving groups in Kerala for manufacture of high-tin bronze vessels and mirrors and lost wax casting.Sharada was recently featured in this site Trowel blazers of University College London on women archaeologists.

Dance

In this International Year of Astronomy the photo-montage exhibition 'Danse e-Toile: Nataraja et le Cosmos' curated by Sharada Srinivasan, scientist-dancer is featured at Alliance Française Bangalore Atrium. It explores cosmic sensibilities and the art, metallurgy and science of the Nataraja bronze and from the evocative lens of both the Bharata Natyam and French contemporary dance forms. It will be at Cité De L'Espace, Toulouse for the Festival La Novela as a prelude to an internet-streamed dance event between Sharada Srinivasan and K.Danse, France.
She is also a performing artist specialising in the South Indian classical dance of Bharatanatyam. She has performed and lectured at the Royal Asiatic Society, the Royal Academy of Arts, for the Chola exhibition, the International Academy of Astronautics, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, INTACH-Belgium, Nehru Centre, London, China Conservatory of Music, National History of Science Seminar, Hyderabad, University of Toyoma, Japan and others. She had a photo-exhibition in June 2008 at Alliance Française Bangalore entitled 'Cosmic Dance of Shiva' on art-science-dance perspectives related to South Indian bronzes and the Nataraja.
Danse e-Toile: Nata-raja et le Cosmos was the first ever live, internet-streamed interactive dance and music programme between India and Europe. The event was held in Bangalore on 17 October 2009 as part of the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. What made it more noteworthy were the creative choreography and the amazing synthesis of art, science and advanced technology.
Sharada Srinivasan was conferred with the Dr. Kalpana Chawla State Award for Women Scientists 2011 instituted by the Government of Karnataka.

Honors