Dr. Soumendra Kumar Naik has joined Ravenshaw University in 2010. He completed his Ph.D. (Botany) from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha in 2002 and his doctoral research was on tissue culture of pomegranate. He subsequently carried out his post-doctoral work during 2007 as BOYSCAST Fellow on Genetic Engineering at University of Kentucky, USA. He has more than 19 years of experience in teaching and research. Till date under his guidance / co-guidance 6 Ph.D. and 9 M.Phil. students have successfully obtained their Degrees and at present 6 more students are doing research for their Ph.D. Dr. Naik has published more than 40 research papers in journals of national and international repute including book chapters. To his credit, he has also edited a book. He is also recipient of UGC – Research Award (2016-2018), UGC, New Delhi; BOYSCAST Fellowship (2006-2007), DST, Govt. of India; Best Record of Publication (2017-2018 & 2018-2019), Ravenshaw University; and Sarojini G. Panigrahi Young Scientist Award (2001). Dr. Naik is a Fellow of Indian Botanical Society (FBS). He is the first person from Odisha to be elected (2019) as Member of ‘Plant Tissue Culture Association of India (PTCA-I)’. At present, he is also serving as an ‘Associate Editor’ of ‘Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants’ (Springer; Impact Factor: 2.005). Further, as a member of IUCN SSC (Medicinal Plant Specialist Group), he is contributing for conservation of medicinal plants of Odisha through his research work. In addition to teaching and research activities, he has discharged various administrative responsibilities including Head, Department (2012-2014) and Dean Students’ Welfare (DSW) (2015-2016). At present, he is serving as the Head of the Department of Botany and Coordinator of Biotechnology Program of the Department. 

His research interest is on conservation and sustainable utilization of plants resources using in vitro approaches of plant tissue culture and biotechnology and scientific validation of different ethnobotanical claims.