Prof. Sasmita Samanta is an accomplished academician and administrator with more than two and half decades of experience in strategizing excellence in professional and technical education. She is a visionary, researcher, motivator, popular teacher, author, phenomenal orator and engaged leader with a deep commitment to create a sustainable ecosystem for all stakeholders in her sphere of involvement.

Prof. Samanta’s intellectual capabilities is manifested in distinctions as Postdoc from Taiwan, Ph.D. in Management, a Stanford LEAD Alumna and Stanford Distinguished Scholar, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, USA; Fellow of Royal Society of Arts (FRSA, UK); and Fellow of Computer Society of India (FCSI, India). She has been trained in leadership from the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO), USA and CSC Leaders programme, Common Purpose Charitable Trust, UK. Her academic areas of interest and specialisation include Organisational Behaviour, Human Development, Spiritualism and Leadership.

She has held leadership roles in various domains ranging from admissions, human resource management, talent acquisition, general administration, governance and competency management. Her emphasis has been on engaging and retaining people, bringing transparency in the system leading to high motivation, ownership and commitment among the employees, and increasing their productivity for the triumph of organizational goals.

Prof Samanta with her rich academic experience and professional expertise has pioneered the implementation of several technology-enabled innovations at KIIT, including e-evaluation and use of innovation technology in the teaching-learning process, which has been running successfully with more than 25,000 users and 4000 process owners.

Prof. Samanta was the Chairperson of KIIT Technology Business Incubator (KIIT-TBI). Currently, KIIT-TBI is supporting 235+ budding technology-driven entrepreneurs to convert their new ideas into business processes or products. As many as 65 start-ups have received national and international awards, while more than 50 have received follow-on funding worth 350 crores. Over 4000+ jobs have been generated by the incubatees till date. Prof. Samanta has mentored more than 10000 potential entrepreneurs and incubatees to date.

Centre of Excellence on Occupational Safety and Health at KIIT-DU is among the many Centres of Excellence that she is heading. It was established in association with BG BAU, Germany; BG ETEM, Germany and Indo-German Focal Point, India to promote occupational safety and health in the country. She is the Chairperson of Centre of Excellence for Public Policy Research and Centre for Peace and Happiness Studies.

She is the Founder-President of World Leadership Academy, which serves as a platform for global leaders to address issues from diverse domains with intellectual freedom. The organization is also functioning to encourage diverseness in research, teaching and publication from all researchers and scientists. It plans to engage with the government, NGOs, institutions and businesses and provide solutions to diverse issues and create a positive impact.

As a distinguished academician, Prof. Samanta has been entrusted with important roles in many academic bodies of the country. She was the Professor and Vice Chancellor of KIIT Deemed to be University, Ambassador of University Grants Commission Paramarsh Scheme, KIIT-DU, a scheme which helps many institutes to get NAAC accreditation and good ranking nationally. She has contributed to various professional bodies such as the Indian Science Congress, Indian Academy of Social Sciences, Indian Commerce Association, Odisha Commerce Association, etc.

Prof. Sasmita Samanta is a prolific public speaker, who has delivered more than 500 keynote addresses and lectures in diverse fields of education and human development at different conferences, seminars, faculty development programmes, including Human Resource Development Centres of UGC. She has authored, co-authored and edited many books and has contributed several research articles in national and international journals and periodicals.

In addition to her work as an academician, Prof. Samanta is deeply engaged in different social outreach programmes like ‘Kanya Kiran’ (a programme to check violence against girl children) and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). Under the Education for All initiative, she has connected with and motivated around 1.5 million children to participate in higher education in the last ten years. Under her leadership, Education Summits on the theme ‘Education for All’ are organised in all districts of Odisha and 30 major cities and state capitals of the country every year.

For her noteworthy contributions to academia & industry, multifarious social outreach and entrepreneurial activities as well as social innovations, she has received many national and international fellowships and awards. Some of her recent recognitions include: ‘Distinguished Scholar’ in the Wall of Fame by Stanford LEAD; ‘Asia’s greatest Educational Leaders 2021’ award at the Greatest Brands and leaders 2021-22 Asia-Americas- Africa; ‘India’s Most Promising Vice Chancellor 2021-2022’ award at the EDUSTAR Leadership Awards 2022; ‘Times Power Women East 2022-Odisha ‘Excellence in Education’ Award at the XGRAD 2022 Higher Education Summit; ‘Excellent Contribution To Education Sector’ at the 7th CMAI ICT World Education Excellence Awards2022; ‘Inspirational Leaders of India’ Award at the White Page Leadership Conclave 2021 and many more. She treads towards excellence instead of basking on the glory of her achievements on the past as a restless innovator and visionary leader.