
Thirty-eight researchers from Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be University in Bhubaneswar have been named to Stanford University and Elsevier’s global ranking of the top 2 per cent of scientists for 2026. The list, released on Wednesday, 14 October, evaluates scholars in two categories: long-term career impact and recent single-year impact.

Of the 38, 35 feature in the single-year impact category, which measures citation influence during 2025, while 20 are included in the career-long impact register. The largest cohort, 27 researchers, comes from the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) and related engineering institutions. Eight are from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, two from the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, and one from the Institute of Agricultural Sciences.
Notable names on the career-long list include neurosurgeon Prof Ashok Kumar Mahapatra and the late Prof Pradipta Kumar Dash, both former vice-chancellors of the university. SOA founder-president Prof Manojranjan Nayak congratulated the researchers on their achievement.
Both odishabytes.com and The Times of India covered the story as uniform straight reporting, with nearly identical facts, names and figures. The coverage is neutral and fact-based, lacking any political or editorial framing. The only variation is length: odishabytes.com includes the full roster of researchers, while The Times of India gives a representative sample. The consistent focus across both outlets is the academic prestige of the Stanford-Elsevier ranking and the disciplinary spread of SOA’s recognised researchers. No next step is mentioned beyond the congratulatory message from the university’s founder-president.
Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral
Sources (2): odishabytes.com (neutral report), timesofindia.indiatimes.com (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.