B. M. Birla Science Museum is an Indian science museum located in Hyderabad, which is now the capital of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
B. M. Birla Science Museum was constructed by civil engineer Mr. P. A. Singaravelu. B. M. Birla Science Museum comprises of a planetarium, museum, science centre, art gallery as well as a dinosaurium. The museum in B. M. Birla Science Museum itself was the second phase of the science centre when it opened in the year 1990.
B. M. Birla Science Museum is a wing of the Science Centre. The planetarium in B. M. Birla Science Museum was inaugurated by Mr. N.T. Rama Rao, on 8th September in the year 1985. It is one of three Birla Planetariums in the India. The others are the M.P. Birla Planetarium in Kolkata and B.M. Birla Planetarium in Chennai.
Dinosaurium in B. M. Birla Science Museum
The Dinosaurium in B. M. Birla Science Museum is the newest addition to the planetarium and science centre and opened in 2000. This Dinosaurium exhibits a 160-million-year-old mounted Kotasaurus Yamanpalliensis. This type of fossil was excavated at Adilabad district in Telangana and presented to the Science Museum of B. M. Birla by the Geological Survey of India. The Dinosaurium also has a collection of smaller fossils of dinosaur eggs, marine shells and fossilised tree trunks.
B. M. Birla Science Museum as the Centre of Learning
B.M. Birla Science Centre is one of the most impressive organizations in the country for the diffusion of science and has several innovative programmes in the popularization of science and formal and non formal education and research. B. M. Birla Science Museum is recognized both as an Institute of Higher Education and for R&D. No less than twenty two Nobel Laureates and several other equally eminent scientists of India, the
Former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, I.K. Gujral, Krishna Kant, the then Vice President of India and many other important personalities visited this place.
Awards Instituted by B. M. Birla Science Museum
B.M. Birla Science Centre has instituted quite a few prestigious awards. These include the B.M. Birla Science Prizes, amongst the most prestigious awards for Indian Scientists and the Life Time Achievement in Sciences Award given to a selection from amongst the greatest living scientists in the world. These awards of B.M. Birla Science Centre are given to Abdus Salam, Professor. Norman Borlaug, Aaron Klug, James Watson, Ilya Prigogine, Roald Hoffman, Klaus Von Klitzing, Gerard"t Hooft, Charles Townes, Prof. Douglas Osheroff and many others.