Bhubaneswar: The Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) family paid tearful tribute to its former Director Dr. Ajay Parida on his 1st death anniversary. A memorial lecture was held at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar to honour the memory of Late Dr Parida. The memorial lecture was organised to remember his contributions to science and to reminisce about his life with those close to him.
Dr Parida was a well-established and internationally recognized leader, researcher and research administrator in the area of agriculture, food and nutrition security, plant molecular biology and advanced biotechnology. He had led and provided leadership in the area of cutting-edge scientific research addressing the issues of health, disease management and improved agriculture productivity.
He was Executive Director of, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation from 2009 to 2016 and had successfully implemented many programmes with implications on improving lives and livelihoods of rural and tribal communities.
Dr Parida’s major scientific contribution was in the area of application of frontier technology for addressing major challenges in declining agriculture productivity threatened due to climate change. His research aimed at developing location-specific crop varieties to cope with the adverse impact of climate change.
He employed advanced biotechnological tools for crop improvement. He had made pioneering contributions in identifying stress-tolerant genes specifically for salt and drought stress. Parida’s research had also contributed to the basic understanding of the genetic architecture and species relationship in mangroves, and wild relatives of cultivated cereals, legumes and other cultivated crop species.
Dr Parida had supervised more than 25 students for their Ph.D. degree and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in the area of genetic resources characterization, conservation genetics, stress biology, molecular breeding and biotechnology-related policy issues.
Parida was involved in the application of science and technology for rural development and is actively involved in working with grassroots organizations and local communities in identifying the issues affecting food and livelihood security and providing solutions based on participatory approaches.
As Director ILS Bhubaneswar he was instrumental to give a new dimension to ILS, Bhubaneswar, and expanding its area of research to include plant biotechnology, antiviral research, and preparedness for the pandemic among others. He expanded various scientific facilities for the augmentation of research at ILS.
In covid pandemic time his contribution for society was largely appreciated and he was a familiar face to the people of Odisha. The event was attended by the scientific institute heads from all over Odisha who gathered to hear from the Chief Guest, the wife of Late Dr.Parida, Dr. Rashmi Mahapatra, Dean, KISS-DU who gave an emotional talk on Dr Parida.
Prof Dinabandhu Sahoo, Director, Centre for Himalayan Studies, University of Delhi, who is a close friend of Late Dr Parida talked about the life journey of Dr Parida. Dr Debasis Dash, Director, ILS and the guests commemorated the day by planting saplings at ILS as a tribute and Dr. Dash hopes to continue this tradition at ILS in years to come.
