29 NIT Rourkela faculty feature in Stanford’s top 2% scientists list

Twenty-nine faculty members of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela and one of its PhD graduates have been featured in the World’s Top 2% Scientists List compiled by Stanford University researchers and published by Elsevier through its Data Repository.

The list is prepared by Prof. John P. A. Ioannidis of Stanford University, USA, and his team. It identifies scientists among the top 100,000 researchers or those ranked in the top 2% of their respective sub-fields, based on a composite citation indicator. The assessment considers career-long and single-year research impact, including total citations, co-authorship adjustments and authorship positions.

The NIT Rourkela faculty members featured in the list represent several fields, including life sciences, metallurgical and materials engineering, mathematics, chemical engineering, biotechnology and medical engineering, humanities and social sciences, ceramic engineering, food process engineering, electronics and communication engineering, physics and astronomy, civil engineering, and mining engineering, among others.

Commenting on the recognition, Prof. K. Umamaheshwar Rao, Director of NIT Rourkela, said the inclusion of 29 faculty members was a proud moment for the institute. He said it reflected the quality, consistency and global relevance of the research being undertaken at NIT Rourkela. He congratulated the researchers on their dedication to advancing knowledge and expressed confidence that their work would inspire students and young researchers.

The faculty members named in the list are Prof. Surajit Das and Prof. Sujit Kumar Bhutia from Life Science; Prof. Bankim Chandra Ray and Prof. Ajit Behera from Metallurgical and Materials Engineering; Prof. Snehashish Chakraverty and Prof. Bikash Sahoo from Mathematics; Prof. Santanu Paria from Chemical Engineering; Prof. Kunal Pal, Prof. Balasubramanian P and Prof. Krishna Pramanik from Biotechnology and Medical Engineering; and Prof. Narayan Sethi and Prof. Jalandhar Pradhan from Humanities and Social Sciences.

The list also includes Prof. Ritwik Sarkar from Ceramic Engineering; Prof. Mohd Khalid Gul from Food Process Engineering; Prof. Siba Sankar Mahapatra, Prof. Sandhyarani Biswas, Prof. S. Murugan and Prof. Subrata Kumar Panda from Mechanical Engineering; Prof. Harekrushna Sahoo from Chemistry; Prof. Santanu Kumar Behera from Electronics and Communication Engineering; Prof. Samir Kumar Patra from Life Science; Prof. Pravat Kumar Ray and Prof. Anup Kumar Panda from Electrical Engineering; Prof. Dillip Kumar Pradhan, Prof. Subhash Chandra Mahapatra and Prof. Indrani Banerjee from Physics and Astronomy; Prof. Suresh Prasad Singh from Civil Engineering; Prof. Arnab Ghosh from Electrical Engineering; and Prof. Debi Prasad Tripathy from Mining Engineering.

Dr. Srimanta Patra, an NIT Rourkela PhD graduate currently serving as a DST-INSPIRE Faculty member at IIT Guwahati, has also been featured in the list. The institute further noted that 19 researchers were featured in the Stanford Top 2% Scientists 2026 career-long category.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Hans India