Department of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
In 1962 the Chemistry Department was established at the pre-university course level by Prof Sankaran, the Architect of the Chemistry Department and a pioneer staff. It then became an Undergraduate Department in 1983. The Department was able to grow continuously through the dedicated services of many eminent professors like Prof N. Venkatasubramanian, Dr. P. Selvarathy Grace, and Dr. R. Jothibai Margret and it has been upgraded to a Research Centre offering M.Phil and Ph.D. Programmes. The UG, PG, and the Research Centre is now under the leadership of Dr. B. Ravindran Durai Nayagam with 4 permanent faculty members and 4 faculty members in the self-financing stream. The Department is well supported by three lab assistants.
In addition to the Degree Clinical Laboratory Technology, a career-oriented course aided by the UGC is run by the Department to equip the students with a diploma. The Department offered yet another P.G Programme namely M.Sc Chemistry with specialisation in Green Chemistry funded by the UGC under the innovative scheme for five years.
The Department of Chemistry is housed on the second floor of the Majestic Science Block with spacious, well ventilated, and sufficiently furnished classrooms. At present, the Department has two laboratories for regular classes, one laboratory for research, one air-conditioned instrumentation room, and one air-conditioned Seminar Hall with LCD projector. The Research Centre is equipped with IR spectrophotometer, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, and cyclic voltammetry. The important research fields are Phytochemistry, Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Nano Chemistry, Green Chemistry, Computational Chemistry, and Adsorption Studies. It is also provided with laptop computers and desktop computers with internet connectivity. Two classrooms are fitted with LCD projectors.
The Chemistry Association serves as a springboard for the budding talents. Students’ Aid fund operated by the Department caters to the needy students. The Department has been actively involved in teaching, research, and various extension activities The growth of the Department can be gauged from the fact that it has produced several M.Phil and Ph.D scholars and has published a lot of research papers in reputed National and International journals. The alumni of our Department occupy positions of great responsibilities in different fields across the world.