Dr. Umaballav Mohapatra

Born on 25th September, 1960 in Puri. After passing High School Certificate Examination in first division from Puri Zila School, he was admitted in Samanta Chandra Sekhar College, Puri, wherefrom he graduated in 1979. He secured a first class honours in Botany with distinction. He studied for his M.Sc. (Botany) with Cytogenetics special paper in PG Department of Botany, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar during 1979-1981. After obtaining M.Phil. degree from Delhi University, Mr. Mohapatra joined as a Lecturer in the PG Department of Botany, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar in 1987. He was awarded a Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholar at the Plant Genetic Manipulation Group, University of Nottingham, UK in 1994. He worked under the supervision of Dr. MR Davey and Dr. JB Power on Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation of Lettuce and obtained Ph.D. degree in 1998. He was promoted to the post of Reader in Utkal University in 1999. He joined as a Professor in Botany in the North Orissa University, Baripada in August 2004. Professor Mohapatra joined as the Director (Technical), Biotechnology, in the Science & Technology Department, Government of Odisha in September, 2012, where he also worked as Director of Science & Technology, Director of Institute of Mathematics and Applications, President of Odisha Bigyan Academy. During his tenure in the S & T Department, Government of Odisha, several schemes such as Biju Patnaik Research Fellowship in Biotechnology, fellowship for meritorious students of M.Sc. in Biotechnology and other basic science subjects, financial support to organize seminars, workshops, etc., financial support to attend seminars inside the country and abroad, Emeritus Professor in Biotechnology, financial support for R&D projects, etc. were initiated. After completion of the deputation period, Professor Mohapatra joined North Orissa University on 1st May, 2018. He is now the Head of the Department of Botany, Director, College Development Council, Director, Students’ welfare, Professor-in-Charge, Research & Development, Professor-in-Charge, Intellectual Property Right Cell and a member of Syndicate of North Orissa University. He has 35 years of teaching and research experience in Cytogenetics and Plant Biotechnology. Under his guidance, 14 students have obtained Ph.D. and 22 students have done M.Phil. As Principal Investigator, he has successfully completed several research projects funded by IAEA, Vienna, UGC, New Delhi, etc