Dr. Raunak Sharma
PhD in Biological Sciences | Plant–Microbiome Research Lead
- Role
- Plant–Microbiome Research Lead; Science Research & Communications Associate
- PhD
- Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani – Hyderabad (2025)
- Qualified
- CSIR-NET (Life Sciences); GATE
Dr. Raunak Sharma
Plant–Microbiome Research Lead; Science Research & Communications Associate
Listening to the underground conversations — where roots, microbes, and children all signal in languages adults rarely stop to hear.
> "How do we discover the truth about things that are completely invisible? What is happening in the spaces beyond our sight?"
— A question he carried from childhood, and never stopped chasing
Dr. Raunak Sharma spent seven years learning to eavesdrop on a conversation most people never notice, the chemical dialogue between plant roots and the dense cloud of microbes in the soil around them. At BITS Pilani and, earlier, at the UNESCO-Regional Centre for Biotechnology, he mapped how beneficial soil bacteria help plants survive drought, salinity, and stress, publishing eight peer-reviewed papers on plant–microbe interactions, cell-wall biochemistry, and metabolic phenotyping using LC-MS and GC-MS.
Then she moved from the journal to the garden. As Science Editor at the Journal of Visualized Experiments, she spent a year judging what makes scientific work rigorous; as a researcher, she spent years watching hidden systems respond to invisible signals. At Blue Blocks, she applies both lenses to a different kind of ecosystem: the child. "A child in a garden is already running experiments," she observes. "They isolate textures, profile smells, look for gradients in the soil. They are born researchers; we're just usually too hurried to see it."
> "Children, much like the hidden microbes in a thriving ecosystem, are the invisible architects of their environments, constantly sensing, signalling, and altering the world around them in ways adults are too hurried to see."
The Researcher's Lens: The Child as Scientist
Dr. Sharma sees the child not as a subject of study, but as a fellow investigator — one whose curiosity has not yet been narrowed by academic convention. At Blue Blocks he brings the discipline of the microbiology lab into the classroom: precise observation, patient documentation, and the willingness to sit with an invisible process long enough for it to reveal itself.
At Blue Blocks
Dr. Sharma leads plant–microbiome research modules for adolescent investigators, mentors science communication across the 0–18 continuum, and helps translate laboratory-grade rigor into classroom-scale inquiry. He bridges the Institute's biological research programme with its editorial and publications workflow.