Department of Zoology

The Department of Zoology was established in the year 1947 as a premier centre for teaching and research in animal sciences. The Department was the first one in the country to be recognized as the Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) in 1963 and continues to enjoy this status by special assistance from the UGC-SAP program. The UGC extended its CAS status in 2005 by providing special assistance for another five years. The department has a well equipped central instrument facility from grants under DST-FIST program, which has recently been upgraded and a number of new instruments have been added. At present, the department has 140 M.Sc., 10 M.Phil & 95 Ph.D. students. The current research and teaching areas in the Department include Animal Physiology, Animal Behaviour, Aquaculture, Cell Signaling, Chromatin and Cancer Biology, Computational Biology, Endocrinology, Entomology, Genomics and Metagenomics, Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity, Microbiology, Molecular Cell Biology,Radiation Biology, Reproductive Physiology and Toxicology. In the year 2009 semester system was introduced in the department and the student uptake at Master’s level was increased from 60-75. Apart from teaching, the faculty is engaged in active interdisciplinary research. More than 175 papers have been published in last five years. The department practices interdisciplinary research. Faculty members are presently collaborating with leading institutes like IMTECH, IARI, TERI, NEERI, ICGEB, IGIB, NII, and NIHFW. Faculty members have received many prestigious awards and honours. In 2007, two faculty members were elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Faculty members are also on the editorial board and/or as adhoc reviewers for many prestigious national and international journals and members of project advisory committees (PAC) of DST and DBT. All faculty members have extramural funding for their research projects and the Department has several international collaborations with Austria (FAO/IAEA), USA (INDO/US), Switzerland (EAWAG- EPFL, UNIL), Mexico (CIBNOR) and Australia (CSIRO). The Department has been holding various workshops, symposia, conferences and other teaching courses to provide a platform for scientific exchanges. The Department organizes workshops for college teachers to make them adapt with current trends. Apart from teaching and research, the Faculty members are making substantial contribution to the University system in various capacities. To further strengthen teaching and research in the Department, an extensive renovation and up-gradation of teaching and research laboratories has been undertaken in the last two years.

A new, well equipped central facility has been established. Well equipped laboratories for conducting practicals for post graduate students have been developed. Lecture theatres have been upgraded and equipped with LCD projectors. The library has been modernized with 30 computer terminals with complete access to more than 2000 odd journals. All efforts are being made to make this department one of the best institute for teaching and research in the country.