About department
The Department of Botany offers Postgraduate teaching and Ph.D. Programmes. The Department admits 48 students each to the M. Sc. I Year and II Year Classes. It offers four specialization viz. Plant Physiology, Plant Pathology, Cytogenetics and Angiosperm Taxonomy. Around 20 scholars are engaged in doctoral research at the moment. The Department turned out about 350 doctorates during the last five decades of its existence.
The Department is now a three storied building with one seminar hall, one lecture hall, 5 laboratories for M. Sc., 13 research laboratories, museum, glass house, herbarium, tissue culture laboratory and molecular biology laboratory. It is also equipped with photographic section, library and botanical garden. In addition to this, each teacher has independent cabin with all facilities including computer, scanner, printer, refrigerator etc.
Research in the four section of the Department is funded by the University, U. G. C., CSIR., MFM (USA), Royal Society (England), D.A.E., I.R.D.P., Ministry of Environment and forest, D.B.T., D.S.T., R.G.S.T.C. etc.
The Department is often visited by botanists and biologists from abroad under various programs. We had the privilege of having Fulbright Professor John Harris, Tenesse University, USA and Prof. Mark Stahaman, Wisconsin University, USA for three months to lecture and train in techniques in Biochemistry etc. Prof. Dr.Tod F. Stuessey, Secretary General, International Association for Plant Taxononomy, Vienna, Austria; Prof. Dr. Karol Marhold, President , International Organization of Plant Biosystematists, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, Dr. Jana Leong Scornikova, Singapur Botanic Garden, Singapore; Dr. Salvatore Cozzolino, Napoli, Italy; Prof. Oluwa Toin Ogundipe, University of Lagos, Nigeria; Dr. Silvia Pihu, University of Tartu, Estonia; Dr. Eckhard von Raab-Strabe, Freie University, Berlin, Germany; Dr. Jan Suda, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic; Prof. Marten J. M. Christenhusz; Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki, Finland;Dr. Ongkararn Vanijajiva, Phranakhon Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand; Dr. Tatiana Feodorova, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; Dr. Hye Ryun Na, Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea; Prof. Debashish Raha, Sydney University, Australia etc. have visited Department. About 50 foreign delegates have attended XI International Conference of International Organization of Plant Biosystematists, “Evolution of Plants from Tropical to high mountain ecosystem” held by the Department during 02nd to 04th September 2010.Similarly, teachers made short or long foreign outings for seminars, conferences and even training. Notably the foreign fellowships secured by many students of Plant Physiology section e. g. U. K., Ireland, Japan etc. Prof. Arvind S. Dhabe has got PEIN Fellowship of University Santiago de Compostella, Spain during May – June 2014.