Department of Botany

The department of Botany has a long history of 43 years of existence. It was first started in erstwhile P.G. Centre at Nallapadu (near Guntur) affiliated to Andhra University in 1967.

In 1976, when this PG centre was elevated as Acharya Nagarjuna University, the department of Botany was one among few departments of the university. The strong foundations for the department in terms of it strength in teaching and research were laid down by former professors viz., Prof. A.S. Rao, Prof. P.N. Rao, Prof. P.R. Mohan Rao and Prof. N. Lakshmi.

The legacy of the department has been kept up through recruitment of highly qualified staff, succession of successful Heads of the department with efficient administrative abilities and research scholars and students of outstanding quality. The Botany as an important and essential branch of life science disciplines offers bright opportunities for the students of M.Sc Botany course and Research scholars persuing M.Phil and Ph.D degrees in Botany. The department of Botany has emerged as one of the strong departments of this university marked with significant research in areas of soil microbiology, plant pathology, aerobiology, genetics and plant breeding, plant ecology and biosystematics.

Identifying the growing importance of micro organisms in Industry and Agriculture and also availability of a rich knowledge resource of the faculty, M.Sc Microbiology course was offered by the department in 1992. Accordingly, the title of the department has been renamed as Department of Botany and Microbiology. Forty three batches of M.Sc Botany students (1967-2010) and 18 batches of M.Sc Microbiology students (1992-2010) have been so far been produced from this department.