31 Notable alumni of Utkal University

Uma Charan Mohanty is an Indian meteorologist and an emeritus professor at the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar. He is the president of Odisha Bigyan Academy and is known for his researches on the Indian summer monsoon. Besides being an elected fellow of the Indian Geophysical Union, he is also an...

Bhubaneswar Mishra is an Indian American computer scientist and professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. He is known for his applied contributions to bioinformatics, cybersecurity, and computational finance. Mishra is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher in Computer Science.

Debapratim Purkayastha was a professor of strategy, academic leader and case method expert.

Nirad Narayan Mohapatra was an Indian film director. Mohapatra was born in the Indian state of Odisha. He directed the Oriya language film Maya Miriga, television soap operas and documentaries.

Dr. Yashodhara Mishra is a Odia writer and poet. She is a professor of English who has published poems, several collections of short stories and novels. She was a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.

Bhanu Pratap Jena is an Indian-American cell biologist and the George E. Palade University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Physiology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, who discovered porosome in the mid-1990s and demonstrated it to be the universal secretory machinery in plasma membrane.

Gopal Krushna Rath was an Indian Odia poet. He won Sahitya Akademi award for Odia literature in 2014 for his poetry collection Bipula Diganta.

Subrat Kumar Prusty is an Indian Odia-language scholar, activist, social entrepreneur, literary critic and author. He is Member Secretary of the Institute of Odia Studies and Research, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He was instrumental in preparing the research documents, advocating the awarding of Classical Language status to Odia, forming Central Institute of Classical Odia, Odia University and implementation of the Odisha Official...

Prasad Kumar Harichandan also known as Prasad Harichandan is an Oriya politician and the former president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee, known for revolutionary slogan, "ମୁଁ ନୁହେଁ, ଆମେ". He is the son-in-law of comedian-cum-politician Sura Routray.

Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand is an Indian mining veteran, executive, and author. He is the Resident Director of Vedanta Limited. He was the chairman cum managing director of National Aluminium Company. NALCO is the largest integrated aluminium unit in Asia and is also one of the largest aluminium complexes of the world. He has been in the mining and metal...

Sruti Mohapatra is a disability inclusion expert. Her expertise is in inclusive education and inclusive disaster management and planning.

Jitendra Narayan Dash, who writes under the pseudonym of Dash Benhur is a Sahitya Akademi award winner writer from Odisha. He was born in Khandapada in Nayagarh district, Odisha. He retired as the Principal of Samanta Chandra Sekhara College, Puri. He is a founder member of Aama Odisha.

Jayanti Patnaik was an Indian politician and social worker. She was the first Chairperson of the National Commission for Women. Her term of office was from 3 February 1992 to 30 January 1995.

Bijoy Mohapatra is a politician from Odisha. A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he was Irrigation Minister of Odisha from 1990 to 1995 in the Biju Patnaik cabinet. He was the most powerful minister (known as Super Chief Minister) in Biju Patnaik's cabinet. He was four times MLA from Patkura Constituency of Kendrapara district. He won four straight elections...

Pratap Chandra Sarangi is an Indian politician from Balasore, Odisha. He serves as a National Executive Member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a member of parliament from the Balasore Lok Sabha constituency in Odisha. He was the Minister of State in the Government of India for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (2019-2021)...

Manasi Pradhan is an Indian women's rights activist and author. She is the founder of Honour for Women National Campaign, a nationwide movement to end violence against women in India. In 2014, she was conferred with Rani Laskhmibai Stree Shakti Puraskar by the president of India. Along with Mary Prema Pierick, global head of the Missionaries of Charity, she won...

Prafulla Kar was an Odia musician, singer, lyricist, writer and columnist. He was also famous for his Odissi Music recital. He received Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India in 2015 for his contribution in the field of arts.

Dharmendra Pradhan is an Indian politician who is serving as the 9th Minister of Education since 2021. He previously held cabinet positions as Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas (2014–2021), Minister of Steel (2019–2021), and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (2017–2024). Pradhan represents the Sambalpur in the Lok Sabha as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has...

Subroto Bagchi is an Indian entrepreneur who is the co-founder of Mindtree, an Indian technology MNC.

Loknath Behera is a retired Indian Police Service (I.P.S.) officer. He was state police chief and director general of police of the Kerala State Police, and is the former director of Vigilance in the state of Kerala, after T. P. Senkumar IPS was reappointed as the Kerala state police chief and director general of police following the verdict of the...

Bhartruhari Mahtab is an Indian politician from Odisha. He served as the pro tem speaker of the Lok Sabha from 24th June, 2024 to 26th June, 2024 after the 2024 Indian general election. He has been a member of Lok Sabha from 1998 to 2024 as member of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Ahead of the 2024 elections, he quit...

Arindam Roy is a politician and actor who works predominantly in Odia cinema apart from a few Bengali films.

Baidyanath Misra was an Indian economist, educator, author, and administrator from the state of Odisha. He served as the Vice-Chancellor of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Deputy-Chairman of Odisha State Planning Board, Chairman of Odisha's First State Finance Commission, Secretary of Odisha State Welfare Board, founder Secretary and President of Orissa Economics Association, and the founder Director and...

Oopalee Operajita is a classical Odissi and Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer. As well as the chair and founder of the Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition. The competition is named for former U.S. vice president Al Gore but operates without his involvement.

Sarojini Sahoo is an Indian feminist writer, a columnist in The New Indian Express and an associate editor of Chennai-based English magazine Indian AGE. She has been enlisted among 25 Exceptional Women of India by Kindle Magazine of Kolkata. and is an Odisha Sahitya Academy Award winner.

Hussain Rabi Gandhi was an Indian Odia writer of the late-twentieth century, a politician, a public intellectual and a cultural activist hailing from the Indian state of Odisha. Being a founder member of Biju Janata Dal, he served as the general secretary of the party from upon its formation in 1998 till 2005. In 1994 the title of Biplabi Loka...

Tapan Kumar Pradhan is an Indian poet, writer and translator from Odisha. He is best known for his poem collection "Kalahandi" which was awarded second place in Sahitya Akademi's Golden Jubilee Indian Literature Translation Prize for Poetry in 2007. His other works include "Equation", "I, She and the Sea", "Wind in the Afternoon" and "Dance of Shiva".

Janaki Ballabh Patnaik was an Indian politician who had been 25th Governor of Assam from 2009 to 2014. A leader of the Indian National Congress, he was Chief Minister of Odisha from 1980 to 1989 and again from 1995 to 1999, holding that post for the longest time on record before Naveen Patnaik. In 1950, he became the President of...

Gopal Ballav Pattanaik is an Indian lawyer and later a jurist who served for 19 years on the bench of the Odisha High Court as a permanent judge, as chief justice of Patna High Court, judge of the Supreme Court of India and as the 32nd Chief Justice of India.

Sitakant Mahapatra is an Indian poet and literary critic in Odia as well as English. He served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 until he retired in 1995, and has since held ex officio posts such as Banking Ombudsman of Odisha and Chairman of National Book Trust, New Delhi etc.