786 Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2014 16:14:00 -0400 From: Dr. Sukant K. Mohapatra Reply-To: Dr. Sukant K. Mohapatra To: Gagan K. Dhal , Anil Pradhan , "nahar.1@osu.edu" Cc: "ashokchpanda@gmail.com" , Tapan Padhi , Annapurna Pandey , Amiya Nayak , Bishun Pandey Subject: OSA-ODD: Higher Education - Potential Implementation of STEM Grant Program in Odisha Univ. Parts/Attachments: 1.1 OK ~33 lines Text 1.2 Shown ~1,026 lines Text 2 OK 122 KB Application ---------------------------------------- Dear Shree Dhal, Hope everything is well at your end. I am glad to inform you that Higher Education Symposium in Odisha Development Day on July 3rd, during OSA Convention at Columbus, OH, went very well with participation and deliberation from distinguished academicians and thought leaders. We certainly missed you and Hon’ble Higher Education Minister during the symposium. Prof. Anil Pradhan & Dr. Sultana Nurun Nahar from Ohio State University talked and deliberated on the topic “Training STEM Faculty at Higher Education Institutions in Odisha – Leveraging Obama-Singh Grant Program” during one of the sessions in Higher Education track. Please find attached the abstract of the talk which is published in the “The Proceedings of Invest Odisha Symposium - 2014”. During the discussion session, Dr. Pardhan & Dr. Nahar committed their full support for potential implementation of STEM program in any of the chosen universities in Odisha. Same program is now taken up at Aligarh Muslim University in India. As we have discussed and communicated, we will appreciate your help & support if this program can be implemented in one of the universities in Odisha, chosen by Higher Education Dept. We believe, that would help alleviate sever faculty shortage specifically in science & technology area that state & country is facing today. I am coping Prof. Pradhan & Dr. Nahar in this mail for further communication and next steps. Shree Ashok Ch. Panda, Hon’ble minister, delivered keynote speech during the symposium & is of firm opinion that this program would be helpful for the state & steps may be taken for actual implementation. I am coping Shree Panda in this email as well. I will appreciate your support for this initiative. Please feel free to let me know if I can be of any further help in this initiative. Prof. Pradhan & Dr. Nahar; Thanks you very much for your invited talk/deliberation in higher education symposium. I am very sure your talk/deliberation was of immense value to all participants and potential implementation could bring some very positive result for the state. As we discussed, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Shree Gagan Dhal, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Govt. of Odisha for further follow-up and next steps in this initiative. Regards, Sukant Mohapatra