Ajay Parida, ILS Bhubaneswar Director, passes away

Bhubaneswar: Dr. Ajay Parida, Director of Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) in Bhubaneswar, passed away in Guwahati today. He was 58.

According to reports, Dr. Parida was on a visit to Assam to attend a conference in Guwahati where he died.

Source said that the noted researcher suffered a massive cardiac arrest during sleep at night. The post-mortem of his body will be conducted after arrival of his family members. Later, the body will be flown to Bhubaneswar for last rites.

Dr. Ajay Kumar Parida had contributed significantly in fields of agriculture, plant molecular biology and biotechnology. He was conferred with Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award, in 2014 by the then President Pranab Mukherjee.

Born in Bhagabanpur village of Jajpur district in Odisha, Dr. Parida was appointed as the Director of the ILS, Bhubaneswar. Prior to it, he had served as the Executive Director of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai during 2009-2017.