Researcher Sabbir Ahmed brings science to the public in his home country of Bangladesh

Nearly four years ago, Utrecht University PhD candidate Sabbir Ahmed started creating popular science videos for people in his home country, Bangladesh. His goal was to spark greater interest in research, an area he felt was underappreciated in his country. His efforts in science communication can be considered a big success: by now, Ahmed has nearly 860 thousand subscribers on YouTube and an impressive 1.3 million followers on Facebook. Today, Ahmed will defend his PhD thesis on his own research topic, the early detection of kidney disease.

In his videos, Ahmed -easily recognizable as a scientist by his white lab coat- talks about a wide range of subjects, such as toxoplasmosis, snake bites, sleep paralysis and healthy food. Sometimes, he performs live experiments in the lab to illustrate what he is talking about. In the comments below his videos, viewers praise him for his clear explanations and for providing new, useful information.

Notably, all Ahmed’s videos are in Bengali, his native language. There is a clear reason for that: Ahmed started to make videos because he wanted to help his country. Ahmed: “In Bangladesh, job opportunities in research are limited. In fact, scientific research in general is lagging behind other countries. One of the main reasons is a lack of funding, but there is also a general lack of interest in research.”

You have to grab their attention with subjects that are close to people. And when you have their attention, you have the opportunity to explain the science behind it.

Education system

Ahmed’s experience as a student in Sweden and PhD candidate in the Netherlands gave him insights into why this might be the case: the education system in Bangladesh is not particularly geared towards research. Ahmed: “Unlike Sweden and the Netherland, the curriculum at universities in Bangladesh is not focused on preparing students to become scientist. The focus is more on training students for careers in industry. I believe that the fact that students are not exposed to research, is one of the reason people are not really interested in it.”

“That is when I thought: I could be a science communicator,” Ahmed says. “I wanted to grow interest in research by talking about interesting topics that Bengali people can relate to.”

Everyone has a different audience, so you need a custom approach. What does help in finding the right topics, is tapping into current trends.

Viral with fermented rice

However, finding the right topics for his videos proved challenging. For more than a year, Ahmed had just a few hundred followers. His big break came in April 2022, when his video about fermented rice proved to be very popular. “I uploaded the video at 2.00 AM in the morning and went to sleep,” Ahmed recalls. “When I woke up, I saw that the video went viral overnight. It reached millions of views on Facebook over the following days.”

In the video, Ahmed shows how fermented rice, a very popular food in Bangladesh, looks like under the microscope. As a fermented food, it is full of micro-organisms, which led to a lot of questions from viewer. “They asked whether the food was still safe to eat, but also how I made the images of the magnified organisms and where I bought the microscope.”

Grabbing attention

From that point on, Ahmed realized he had the chance to realize his goals. He started thinking about how to keep the interest of his growing audience. Ahmed: “You have to grab their attention with subjects that are close to people. And when you have their attention, you have the opportunity to explain the science behind it.”

Ahmed did not read books or watch YouTube-tutorials to learn how to make successful content. He simply learned by doing. Ahmed: “I do not believe those YouTube-videos really help. Everyone has a different audience, so you need a custom approach. What does help in finding the right topics, is tapping into current trends.”

Impact

When asked if he feels he is making the impact he aimed for, Ahmed replies that he finds it hard to say with certainty. But besides the numbers –his most popular video has more than ten million views on Facebook-  there are signs that he is getting the reaction he wanted. Ahmed: “The questions I get under my videos, they intrigue me. They make me think people are really getting interested. And I get emails from young people asking how to become a scientist. At the same time, I also see that my videos spark interest among older people without a science background.”

I am actually a shy person.

Secret

Initially, Ahmed kept his science communication activities a secret from most of his colleagues in Utrecht. “I am actually a shy person,” he says. “But at some point I got caught. But this turned out to be a good thing: my colleagues gave me suggestions on how to improve my work, and ideas for topics that I could use.”

Future

Making videos next to working as a PhD candidate was time consuming, but two things kept Ahmed going: he really enjoys making these videos, and he felt that he had a responsibility to his country. Now that he is moving into the next stage of his career, he is planning to keep making videos for Facebook and YouTube. Ahmed: “I enjoy doing my own research, but I also like communicating about science. Eventually, working fifty percent as a scientist and fifty percent as a science communicator seems like a good balance to me.”