PG and Research Department of Botany

The Department was established during the year 1972 with an undergraduate course in Botany and the post graduate course was introduced during the year 2015. The course is highly integrative in nature in order to ensure vertical and horizontal mobility of students. Curricular contents range from the Classical Botany to Applied Botany including Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics and Bionanotechnology. The infrastructure and the expertise available in the department have elevated it into a recognized research center of Bharathiar University to carry out research in both fundamental and applied fields of Botany to award M.Phil.  and Ph.D. degrees (full time/ part time).

Research

The expertise available in the department is shared and served to the users in the fields of Limnology, Algology, Taxonomy, Plant Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Environmental monitoring, etc. The department is a pioneer in the college by carrying out research couple of the decades ago by partnering with the Integrated River Cauvery research project, funded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi. Further to strengthen the research activities in the department, efforts are also being taken to carry out minor and major research projects in the coming years by availing financial support from the University Grants Commission (UGC), Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology (TNSCST) and Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEn&F).

Infrastructure

To ensure hands on experience to students, two departmental laboratories are available with sophisticated instruments such as Phase contrast Microscope (with photomicrographic unit and computer interface), PCR machine, UV- Spectrophotometer, Colorimeter, pH meter, Electrophoresis unit, laminar air flow chamber, incubators, plant tissue/bacterial culture chambers, water bath, Cooling centrifuge etc. Computers with internet facilities are provided to each student to carryout Bioinformatics practical. The department has a good stock of herbarium and collection of digital resources for learning purposes. The referral library in the department helps the students to locate their reference materials. Apart from this, several field/industrial trips are arranged to expose the students to the ecologically sensitive biodiversity hotspots and also to bioprocessing industries.