Dr Santosh Kumar Nanda was born in Jajpur, Odisha, India 1987. He received his M.Sc. degree from Utkal University and Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-Bombay) working with Prof. S. J. Gharpure in 2018. Subsequently, he moved to the University of Texas, San Antonio (UTSA), USA, as a post-doctoral research associate under Prof. Jhon C. G. Zaho. Then he joined as an assistant. Prof. in CTUM and moved to  Biocon Bristol Myers Squibb R&D Centre, Bengaluru as a Senior Research Investigator. Currently, he is working as an assistant professor at the  Govt. (Auto) College, Bhadrak, Fakir Mohan University. His research is focused on the metal-free, photocatalytic cascade functionalization of carbon-carbon unsaturated systems. 

SaiLife-NOST Best Thesis Award, National Organic Symposium Trust (NOST) Council, India (2019). Qualified Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE-2014, All India Rank-299). Qualified for National Eligibility Test (NET) twice in Chemical Sciences: CSIR-JRF, India (December 2011, All India Rank-131 and December 2013, All India Rank-32).