The Department of Botany, West Bengal State University, Barasat, WB, was established in 2009 with a sanctioned faculty strength of 7 posts. The dynamic and visionary contributions of several renowned botanists earned the Department international recognition for its teaching and research in stress biology and plant pathology. The Department has grown considerably since then and now has 96 No. of M.Sc. and 36 Ph. D. students. Current thrust areas of teaching and research provide students with substantial exposure in plant biology. Students are encouraged to attend seminars and workshops at national and international levels. Assessment of the teaching and other activities of the department are done by taking students’ feedback.
The major areas of research are (i) Tree reproductive biology, Plant tissue culture (ii)Plant Pathogen Diversity & Population structure- Molecular identification, phylogeny, etc of Oomycetes (iii) Plant Stress Biology, Plant Proteomics (iv)Environmental Biotechnology (Phosphate and nitrate bioremediation of waste water, biorestoration of degraded mangroves) (v) Detection, Characterization and study of if Plant virus Genome, Study of Viral Diversity, Host pathogen interaction, Development of virus resistant plants and development of Plant virus based Vector. Courses offered : MSc and PhD
Three specializations are currently offered having two papers each:
(i) Plant Virology, Molecular Mycology & Plant Pathology;
(ii) (ii) Advanced Plant Physiology, Biochemistry & Plant Molecular Biology;
(iii) (iii) Molecular Genetics, Advanced Cell Biology, Applied Plant Breeding & Plant Tissue Culture.
Other info which is relevant to the department
The Department is recognized and supported under DBT-BOOST scheme of the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of West Bengal. The department has active MoU/collaborations with various international institutes like University of Kentucky, Markey Cancer Center, Lexington, KY, USA; Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA; National Institute of Crop Science, Kannondai 2-1-18, Tsukuba, JAPAN; Department of Plant Physiology, Slovak University of Agriculture, , SLOVAK REPUBLIC; Department of Plant Physiology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences SGGW, Warsaw, POLAND; Dpt. CienciasAgrarias y del Medio Natural, Universitat ,Jaume I, Castellón, SPAIN and national institutes like Bose Institute, Kolkata;Central Research Institute for Jute & Allied Fibres(CRIJAF, ICAR), Department of Structural biology and Bioinformatics, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Genetics and Plant Propagation Division, Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur, Plant Bioresources Division, Regional Centre of Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, Sikkim, Department of Biotechnology, Panjab University; Department of Agricultural Chemicals , BidhanCahndraKrishiViswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, etc
The faculty members have received various prestigious national and international awards like Fulbright Nehru Senior Fellow, JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Invited Fellow, DST- BOYSCAST Fellow, etc and are Visiting faculty members to various international institutes like Dept. of Plant Pathology & Plant microbe Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, National Institute of Crop Science, Tsukuba, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Japan, Ecofisiologia-Biotecnologia, UniversitatJaume I, Spain, etc.