Seven SOA researchers in Stanford list of top world scientists

Bhubaneswar: Seven eminent researchers from the SOA Deemed to be University here have been named in the world ranking of top two per cent scientists, drawn up on the basis of a subject-wise analysis conducted by the Stanford University, USA.

The researchers are Prof. (Dr.) Pradipta Kishore Dash, Prof. Kulamani Parida, Prof. Lala Behari Sukla, Prof. (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, Prof. R.N.P.Choudhary, Prof. J.C.Misra and Dr. Nihar Bala Devi.

The subject-wise analysis was conducted by Stanford involving one lakh top scientists of the world on the basis of standardized citation indicators such as information on citations, H-index, co-authorship and a composite indicator.

The database was published recently.

SOA, a growing centre of higher education which has been ranked 20th in the country among universities by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) this year, is known today for its emphasis on quality education and innovative research.

A highly research-focused university with around 50 per cent of its Research and Development Centres aligned to national priorities, SOA has 13 research centres and 42 research labs. Investigators are provided extensive facilities to conduct research in the university.

Prof. (Dr.) Manojranjan Nayak, President of SOA, has congratulated the researchers for winning laurels for the university.

While Prof. Dash is an eminent figure among researchers in the field of energy, Prof. Parida and Prof. Sukla are from the area of Physical Chemistry and Mining and Metallurgy respectively.

Prof. (Dr.) Mahapatra, an eminent neuro-surgeon, is the present Vice-Chancellor of SOA while Prof. Choudhury is from the field of Applied Physics.

Prof. Misra, former Pro-Vice Chancellor of SOA and Adjunct Professor, is from the realm of mathematics while Dr. Devi is currently engaged in research in the area of Mining and Metallurgy.

Prof. Dash, an alumni of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, was also the first Vice-Chancellor of SOA. Presently, he is SOA’s Emeritus Professor and heads the Multidisciplinary Research Cell.

His area of expertise includes renewable energy, signal processing, power systems, data mining, artificial and computational intelligence, distributed generation and micro and smart grid.

Prof. Parida, who is presently working as Distinguished Professor in Chemistry and Director of SOA’s Centre for Nano Science and Nano Technology, has worked in different capacities in the CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT), Bhubaneswar before retiring as Chief Scientist.

The research group headed by him has shown great advancement in enhancing structural and electronic properties of hybrid metal oxides-carboneous materials such as graphene, carbon nitride, fullerene, CNT and plasmonic photocatalysts.

Prof. Sukla is presently working as Research Professor and Director of SOA’s Bio-fuel and Bio-processing Research Centre. Earlier, he headed the Bio-resources Engineering department of CSIT-IMMT, Bhubaneswar.

With over 44 years of research experience in the area of Bio-mineral Processing, he also served as Emeritus Scientist, CSIR and Emeritus Professor, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi.

Prof. Mahapatra led a team of experts at AIIMS, New Delhi in 2017 which successfully separated Jaga and Balia, conjoined twins from Odisha in a marathon craniopagus surgery.

He served as head of department of neurosurgery at AIIMS, New Delhi and also worked as Director of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.

Prof. Misra, who has several books on mathematical sciences and a huge number of research papers to his credit, had developed mathematical models for studies pertaining to DNA knots and links, bifurcation and chaos in population dynamics, physiological fluid dynamics, mechanics of fracture and remodeling of bones, cerebral concussion, peristaltic flow of physiological fluids and computational analysis of genes.

Prof. Choudhary, who had earned his Ph.D from the University of Edinburg, UK, and taught as Professor and head of the department of Physics at IIT, Kharagpur, is presently Professor at SOA.

His areas of expertise are Multiferroics, Polymer-Nanocomposites and Advanced Materials with development of new multifunctional materials for devices being his outstanding achievement.

He has more than 40 years of research experience in the USA and UK.

Dr. Devi, an Associate Professor at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), SOA’s faculty of engineering and technology, has 29 years of research experience with particular interest in solvent extraction of non-ferrous, rare earth metals, process development and leaching.