Bhubaneswar, Jan. 5: Educator and social entrepreneur Achyuta Samanta has been elected the president of the Indian Science Congress Association.

Samanta, who is the founder of the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology and the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, is the president elect for 2016-17 and will assume office in 2017-18. He is the second person from the state to be elected president of the prestigious science body in its 102-year-old history.

His predecessor, scientist Pranakrishna Parija, had officiated as the president of the 47th session of the association held in Bombay in 1960.

Samanta has been the member of the association's executive council since 2011. In 2012, he set an example by organising the 99th session of the Indian Science Congress at KIIT University. He has also been the member of many prestigious educational and other national-level apex bodies, including the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Council for Advancement of People's Action & Rural Technology and the academic councils of two central universities. He was the only person from the state to be the member of both the UGC and the AICTE.

Expressing happiness over his election, Samanta said he would work to highlight the state's achievements in the fields of science and technology in India and abroad. "There is a notion that only people of other states are in the topmost positions of various apex educational bodies. Now, this misconception will change as Odisha has got a chance."

In a related development, KIIT University vice-chancellor P.P. Mathur has been elected the general secretary of the science body for 2016-19.

It is rare for two persons from the same university to be elected as president and secretary of the association, which is the oldest body of science academicians and scientists of India. The association has over 60,000 members.