Prof. Kulamani Parida, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre for Nano Science and Nano Technology at Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) here, has been conferred with the Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) annual prize at the 4th Indian Materials Conclave and International Union of Materials Research Society-International Conference in Asia (IUMRS-ICA) 2022 held at IIT Jodhpur recently.

Prof. Parida is a pioneer in designing materials for conversion of solar energy to chemical energy. He has strong ideas for designing new categorized materials in several areas including energy storage and environmental remediation.

He has developed processes for photo and electro catalytic reduction of Chromium (VI), dye degradation, antibiotic degradation and absorption of selenuium and heavy metals.

Prof. Parida has made remarkable contribution towards development of material science while showing significant ability towards mentoring and nurturing young research minds. Having published around 500 peer-reviewed articles in various high impact journals, he has 32 granted Indian patents to his credit and has so far supervised the work of 52 Ph.D scholars.

At the Centre for Nano Science and Nano Technology of SOA, 20 scholars are presently pursuing Ph.D in artificial photosynthesis and electrocatalysis related applications. He has featured in the global 2 per cent of eminent scientist ranking by Stanford University for three consecutive years since 2020. He had also been conferred with the Pathani Samanta award instituted by Government of Odisha and Biju Patnaik Award for Scientific Excellence in the field of physical science.