Prof.Dr.Sudhindra Nath Panda, a renowned academician, plays a pivotal role in shapingthe country’s technical education, research and continuing education programmes. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineeringfrom OUAT, Bhubaneswar along with an M.Tech. and Ph.D.in Soil & Water Engineering fromPAU, Ludhiana.
For more than four decades now, he has been serving as a catalyst of change in PAU Ludhiana, OUAT Bhubaneswar, IIT Kharagpur, NITTTR Chennai, and SRM University-AP enhancing the quality of education and the efficacy of institutional activities there. He has held various leadership positions in his luminous career and devoted 26 years to IIT Kharagpur handling diverse roles.
Prof. Panda has alsobeen a Visiting Professor at the Division of Climatology and Water Resources, Arid Land Research Centre, Tottori University, Japan and at the Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan.
Now as the Vice-chancellor of CGU, Odisha, he plays an active role in empowering the young leaders of the future with competence and excellence. He has redefined the QIP of technical teachers of our country as the National Coordinator for SWAYAM (Teachers Training) and the Coordinator at AICTE: National Initiative for Training of Technical Teachers for developing quality MOOCs in engineering education/pedagogy. He has been instrumental in enhancing the competency of technical teachers acrossIndia. Prof. Panda promoted the International Training Programme,organised under the India Technical Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme of the Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India, that saw the active participation of 110 developing countries in the world.
Prof. Panda has received global recognition for his research quality and standards in the field of Systems Approach for Integrated Land and Water Resources Planning and Management, and Rainwater Conservation and Reuse for Climate Resilient Rainfed Agriculture. He has spearheaded ten nationally and seven internationally sponsored research projects of inter- and intra-institutional naturecomprising multi-disciplinary scientific groups from India and abroad. These projects paved the path for the exchange of faculty members and students for collaborative research between Indian institutesandcountries like Germany, Japan and Canada.
Prof. Panda is the Principal- and Co-consultant for 15 consultancy projects across the country.Under outreach activities,he has implemented the research outcomes in transforming the livelihood of rainfed farmers of several districts in West Bengal with the support of an NGO.
Prof. Panda has edited one book (CRC Press) and a workshop proceeding, written four research bulletins, and published six book chapters, 100 referred national/international journal papers and 76 conference proceedings.He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers (ISAE), Institution of Engineers (India), and Indian Water Resources Society, Visiting International Fellow of ASCE, and Life Member/Member of various national and international societies/organisations of stellar repute.
Prof. Panda is the proud recipient of various national and international awards, honours, medals, and fellowships such as the Commendation Medal for outstanding contribution in the field of Soil and Water Engineering, ISAE, Shankar Memorial Award for excellent research in the field of Soil and Water Engineering, ISAE,the Jawahar Lal NehruAward for outstanding Ph. D. research contribution in the field of Soil Science, Natural Resource Management and Agronomy (Water Management), ICAR, and Research Associateship of CSIR for his research contributions on ‘Integrated Land and Water Resources Planning and Management’.
Under International Academic Research Visits with Fellowships/Collaborative Project Grants, Prof. Panda has undertaken 18 short-term visits to Canada, Japan, Germany, the USA, Australia, The Netherlands, the Philippinesand Sri Lanka. These involved different roles and endeavours such as a collaborative Researcher [SICI, INSA-JSPS,DST-DAAD, DAAD, VW Foundation, NSA-DFG (Germany)], Australia-India Strategic Research, Collaborative Research Scientist (IRRI), Explorative Research Visit (Sri Lanka), and Visiting International Fellow (USA).He has also delivered 18 lectures at various foreign universities and institutions including those in Germany, Japan and Canada.
Prof. Panda has guided 12 Ph.D. and 57 M. Tech. students of IIT, Kharagpur, out of which one Ph. D. scholar has received the Jawahar Lal NehruAward in the field of Rainwater Management from ICAR while two M. Tech. students received their best thesis award from INAE and ISTE. He was instrumental in signing the MOU between IIT Kharagpur with Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, and Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany.
He has served as the Chairperson of the NAAC Team, Technical Director (Soil & Water Engineering) of ISAE; Editorial Board Member; Adviser of the National-Level Selection Committee of ASRB, e-course Developer, Organiser of the Bilateral Indo-USA Engagement Conference and National Workshop; Member of the UGC/AICTE team, International Consortium Group of IWMI, Member of the Award Committee of NAAS,Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of CGWB and as a Member of the Research Centre/Board of Studies/Academic Council/Executive Council/Executive Committee/BoG of various universities and institutions in the country.