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. Her area of specialization is on coastal and marine diversity, coastal ecosystem, climate change and carbon sequestration, coastal zone management. 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. She is the recipient of (PEIN) and (EUPHRATES) Fellowship Award 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 has authored 17 books.