Department of Chemistry

About Department of Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry was founded by Dr. S. S. Bhatnagar at Lahore in 1925, the department of Chemistry is one of the prestigious departments of Panjab University. It has on its faculty highly competent and efficient members whose work is internationally recognized. Several faculty members are recipients of awards and honours, such as Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Raman and Palit awards. Many faculty members are bestowed with F.N.A., F.A.Sc., F.N.A.Sc.. Young Scientist award as well as Visiting Professorship from India and abroad. The department has been selected by the UGC first for COSIST, and then for Special Assistant Programme (SAP) and now it is the Centre for Advanced Studies in Chemistry (CAS) for the last 16 years. This is in recognition to its accomplishments in research and education. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India has accorded it the status of "DST-FIST Supported Department".

The department has stimulating undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programmes. Frequent symposia, summer institutes, refresher and orientation courses have been organized for the benefit of University, College and School teachers as well as talented students. The educational programme COSIP of this department has created a deep and extensive impact on the quality of chemistry education in the region.

The department has good instrumental facilities such as high resolution 300 MHz NMR, FT-IR, UV-Visible Spectrophotometer, Single-crystal X-ray diffraction unit, Polarimeter, Photocorrelation Spectrometer, HPLC, Polarograph, Gas Chromatograph and good computer facilities for carrying out advanced research.

The library of the chemistry department is perhaps one of the best libraries in the subject, in Northern India. With its excellent collection of books, research journals and monographs, it occupies a special position of pride in the department. The facilities are often utilized by many science departments of the Panjab University as well as other universities, industries and institutes in the region.

The department is well-known for its research activities and has very well equipped research laboratories. The main areas of research include: Main group elements chemistry, coordination chemistry, synthetic inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, fluorine chemistry, non-aqueous solution chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, development of new reactions, photochemistry, nanochemistry, colloidal chemistry (micelles and microemulsions), thermodynamics of liquid mixtures as well as electrolyte solutions, protein chemistry and theoretical chemistry (quantum fluid dynamics, stochastic resonance).