Bhubaneswar: 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.
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.
Das, 54, is survived by his wife and only son. After BTech from Utkal University, he did his MTech from Jadavpur University and PhD 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.
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.
Founder President of SOA Manojranjan Nayak, who is related to Das, Vice-President of SOA Saswati Das, Founding Members of SOA Suman Nayak and Upasana Nayak and Commissioner of Police, Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Commissionerate Police, Soumendra Priyadarshi, 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 DP Ray, Vice-Chancellor Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, Chairman, Board of Advisors Damodar Acharya, former Vice-Chancellor RP Mohanty, Pro Vice-Chancellor Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Controller of Examination Manjula Das, Registrar BB Pradhan and Jayadev Pati paid tributes to the departed soul.
The mortal remains were taken to the ITER campus where faculty members, staff and students bid Das adieu and then to his ancestral village of Siula near Pipli. His last rites were conducted at Swargadwar in Puri.
