Department of Microbiology

The Department of Microbiology was established in 1969 with Late Dr S R Vyas as the founder Head of the department. The Department is placed on the 2nd floor of the main building of College of Basic Sciences & Humanities and has in addition 17 span mushroom research and technology complex. The department fulfils the various mandates of the Punjab Agricultural University through its teaching research and extension education programmes. The various research disciplines of the department include Biological Nitrogen Fixation, Industrial Microbiology, Mushroom Research and Technology and it offers degrees in M.Sc. and Ph.D programmes with specialization in Soil Microbiology, Microbial Genetics, Food and Dairy Microbiology, Industrial Microbiology, Clinical Microbiology. So far, more than 250 M.Sc. and 70 Ph..D students have passed out. The present faculty strength is 12 that comprises of 6 Professors/equivalent and 6 Associate Professors/equivalent. At present 19 M.Sc. students and 4 Ph.D students gain admission to the teaching programme of the department every year. The department also caters to the research and teaching needs of the other departments of the College of Basic Sciences & Humanities as well as to the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of the constituent colleges of the University. The faculty of the department is highly competent and many of them have obtained training abroad in their respective disciplines.

The contributions in Basic and Applied Research made by the department have been highly acclaimed and many of the faculty members have been honoured with various prestigious awards including UNDP, ICAR fellowship; National lectureship, UGC, UNESCO fellowship, French Govt. Fellowship, DST award and Young Scientists’ Award (AMI). The faculty has successfully completed more than 25 research projects funded by different agencies like, Punjab Govt., DAE, PSCST, UGC, ICAR, DBT, DNES, SBI, NATP. At present the department is handling 14 research and teaching projects. The department has successfully transferred mushroom and biofertilizer production technology to more than 400 growers and the Department of Agriculture, respectively. The department is also running revolving fund scheme in which high quality seed of different varieties of mushrooms and Rhizobium cultures for 7 crops are supplied to the farmers in addition to providing testing facilities for water, food and milk samples. The students from this department have been awarded various fellowships like K.S. Krishnan Award DAE; Jawahar Lal Nehru Award, Commonwealth; Atwal Gold Medal and PAU Sukhdev Singh Gold Medal/ etc. Many of the students from this department are occupying faculty positions in various universities, private/public sector undertaking in India and abroad. The department has successfully organized several seminars, symposia, educational and excursion tours in the past. The faculty has also participated in different conferences like, USA, Canada. Yugoslavia, China, Egypt, Thailand, Pakistan, Hongkong and England. In short, programmes of the department meet rigorous quality accreditation requirement and its commitment to excellence, innovation and practical outcome is the hall-mark of its internationally recognized degrees.