Dr. Kakoli Banerjee, M.Sc. (Marine Science, University of Calcutta); Ph.D (Jadavpur University) is presently working as an Assistant Professor & Founding Head in the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation of Natural Resources at Central University of Odisha since 4th Jan, 2012. Prior to joining CUO, she has served as Guest Faculty in University of Calcutta, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Burdwan University, University of Kalyani and West Bengal State University. Her area of specialization is Biodiversity Conservation with special reference to coastal ecosystem, coastal pollution, climate change and carbon sequestration, aquaculture, coastal zone management, forestry, remote sensing & GIS. Prior to joining, she has served WWF-India from 2003-2007 as Project Officer, Research Associate in DST and MoES, Govt. of India projects from 2007-2011 respectively. She has about 17 years of post-doctoral research and 16 years of teaching experience. She was a recipient of Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India WOMEN SCIENTIST AWARD, in the year 2007. She is the recipient of PROGRAM EXCELENCIA INVESTIGADORA (PEIN) Fellowship Award in the year 2014 & EUROPEAN UNION FOR PROMOTION OF HEALTH THROUGH RESEARCH, APPLIED TECHNOLOGY, EDUCATION AND SCIENCE (EUPHRATES) Fellowship Award in the year 2016 from University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Spain respectively. She has guided 51 PG, 16 M.Phil and 03 Ph.D students who have been awarded degree and 04 Ph.D students are registered under her. She is credited to have 183 publications in peer-reviewed journals and newsletters and has authored 17 books of post-graduate level. She served as Project Coordinator of EUPHRATES project under Erasmus Mundus Programme funded by University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2013-2017). She was the Principal Investigator of Vegetation Carbon Pool-ISRO Geosphere Biosphere Programme-National Carbon Project under ISRO funded by National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad (2015-2019) and Principal Investigator of Carbon Assessment in Bhitarkanika Mangrove Ecosystem project funded by Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India (2016-2020) respectively. She has been ranked 1st in University, 3,935 in India, 31,706 in Asia and 1,96,316 among World Scientists by AD Scientific Index – 2021 based on Google scholar in Agriculture & Forestry/Fisheries Subject.