Brief Biography

 He was born as 'Sreejith Vadakke Madam Nambissan' in Payyannur, Kerala, India in a brahmin family. He adopted "Felix Bast", a caste- and religion-neutral name, after being inspired by French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire in 2003. He received his B.Sc with university first rank and gold medal in 2000. He received his M.Sc. from University of Madras, and worked at IIT Bombay as CSIR JRF. In 2005, he was selected under prestigious Monbukagakusho Japanese Government International Doctoral Fellowship and earned his PhD in molecular phylogenetics from MEXT, Japan in 2010. Dr. Felix received a number of international recognitions and underwent training from a number of institutions worldwide. In 2007 he underwent 2 months’ research and training at Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington with fellowship from National Science Foundation, USA. In 2009 and 2013, he underwent training at Natural History Museum, London (2009) and Marine Biological Association, Plymouth (2013), UK, Supported by International fellowships from British Phycological Society.  

Dr. Felix Bast served as an invited in-residence intern with President of India as an “Inspired teacher” for one week at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi in 2015. He had been a recipient of “INSA-INSPIRE Faculty Award” from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India in 2012. Dr. Felix received “Teaching Innovator Award” from MHRD, Govt. of India in 2019. In 2018 he received prestigious NAM-Leibniz International Fellowship and underwent 3 months’ research as a guest scientist at Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung (ZMT), Bremen, Germany. In addition, he visited 23 countries for research works and dissemination of findings, including France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Hungary, Austria and South Africa. He served as an elected national Core Committee representative of INYAS representing the discipline Biology and Medicine in 2020. In 2020 he was included in National COVID-19 Task-Force by INSA.

His major research contributions include the discovery of seven new species of marine algae and moss from the Indian coast and Antarctica, the discovery of endophytic algae from the Indian Ocean for the first time, and demystification of the blood rain phenomenon. He is the Principal Investigator of 16 research and teaching grants from agencies including UGC, DST, Ministry of Earth Sciences, ICSSR, and Indian Academy of Sciences, SERB, CSIR, Vigyan Prasar with a funding of 2.13 crore rupees. He has published 129 Scholarly publications with 7 books, and an additional 22 popular science articles. Dr. Felix is actively involved in transdisciplinary research combining liberal arts with sciences. In 2014, he received a major research grant from ICSSR to work on linguistic phylogeny of Indian Languages and did pioneering studies on phylolinguistics of Dravidian and Indo-Aryan language families. He has guided 1 PostDoc, 17 PhDs (9 awarded), 15 M.Phil, 28 MSc and 1 international exchange fellow. In 2016 Dr. Felix undertook an expedition to Antarctica, and stayed at India’s research stations, Bharti and Maitri, as part of the Ministry of Earth Sciences “Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica-36” delegation from December 2016 to April 2017. 

For research-related works including training and dissemination, he had been to 26 countries worldwide, including Japan, US, Canada, UK, China, Thailand, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Kenya, Qatar, Kuwait, Spain, Portugal, Malaysia and Antarctica apart from his home country, India.

Dr. Felix is an early adopter of e-learning and involved with UGC e-PG pathshala and UGC SWAYAM MOOC. In 2020 one of the online courses that Dr. Bast has offered through UGC-Swayam has been ranked as the 7th best online course in the world . 

Felix Bast is a known science writer in India with his contributions regularly appearing in Resonance, Science Reporter, Dream 2047, The Hindu, Times of India and so on. He also writes popular science articles in Malayalam-his mother tongue, in magazines such as Shastra Keralam and Eureka. His 2019 book Voyage to Antarctica (published by Vigyan Prasar, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India) has received several critical acclaims. He is also involved with science education and popularization with a number of science outreach talks at local schools, libraries, colleges and universities. In 2010, Bast founded Felix Foundation (FF), a non-profit organisation. The foundation's major initiatives include donating popular science books to less fortunate government schools, popularization of science through community activities, talks, articles, etc. Bast works closely with INYAS and KSSP as part of the foundation's activities. He regularly delivers outreach talks via his YouTube channel. 

Dr. Bast is an outspoken advocate of organ donation. He has pledged a total organ donor through the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. He is regular blood, platelets and plasma donor, with blood donations on each birthday. Dr. Bast has also signed up for posthumous whole body donation for medical and forensic education and research. Dr. Bast is an avid cyclist who regularly commutes to the university on cycle. He frequently conducts solo cycling tours, sometimes combined with social and environmental outreach activities, such as beach cleaning. He advocates a low carbon-footprint lifestyle which is environmentally conscious and sustainable. Dr. Bast is also a vegetarian, non-smoker, and a teetotaler.