Bhubaneswar: Prof. Manas Ranjan Das, Head of department of Civil Engineering at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), faculty of engineering and technology of SOA, passed away on Monday morning following cardiac arrest. Prof. Das had undergone cardiac surgery recently for replacement of a valve in the heart but his condition deteriorated subsequently when he was put on the life support system.
Prof. Das, 54, is survived by his wife and only son. Having done his B.Tech from Utkal University, he did his M.Tech from Jadavpur University and Ph.D from Utkal University. His specialization was in the area of Geotechnical Engineering. He had research interests in Artificial Intelligence, Sensitivity Analysis, Optimization, Uncertainty Analysis, Genetic Programming and Computational Intelligence. He had nine papers to his credit published in national and international journals.
Prof. Das also took keen interest in environment and climate change having organised several international and national conferences at SOA including on ‘Global Warming, Sea Level Rise and Livelihood Adaptation Strategies along the East Coast of India’ in 2015 and on ‘Understanding Clouds’ in 2017.
Prof. (Dr.) Manojranjan Nayak, Founder President of SOA, who is related to Prof. Das, Ms. Saswati Das, Vice-President of SOA, Mr. Suman Nayak and Ms. Upasana Nayak, Founding Members of SOA and Mr. Soumendra Priyadarshi, Commissioner of Police, Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Commissionerate Police, visited the hospital this morning to pay their last respects to the departed soul.
A condolence meeting was held at SOA attended by staff members where the Chancellor Prof. D.P. Ray, Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, Chairman, Board of Advisors Prof. Damodar Acharya, former Vice-Chancellor Prof. R.P. Mohanty, Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Controller of Examination Prof. Manjula Das, Registrar Prof. B.B.Pradhan and Prof. Jayadev Pati paid tributes to the departed soul. Most of the senior officials of the university attended the meeting where they described Prof. Das as a soft spoken, ever smiling and humble person who was an excellent and hardworking teacher.
The mortal remains were taken to the ITER campus where faculty members, staff and students bid Prof. Das adieu. The mortal remains were taken to his ancestral village of Siula near Pipli. His last rites were conducted at Swargadwar in Puri. Prof. P.K. Sahu, Dean of ITER, Mr. Sunil Das, CEO of Suma Real Media Ltd and a relative of Prof. Das, Prof. Manas Kumar Mallick, Director, ITER, Prof. U.C. Mohanty, Emeritus Professor at the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences of IIT-Bhubaneswar, Dr. Sarat Chandra Sahu, Director of SOA’s Centre for Environment and Climate, Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students’ Welfare), Prof. Nihar Ranjan Das, Visiting Professor in the Civil Engineering Department and Mr. Satya Ranjan Das, Deputy Controller of SOA, Dr. Priyabrata Pattnaik, Additional Dean (Research) and hundreds of teary eyed students paid homage to Prof. Das at ITER.
