History

This is the first Post-graduate department of Chemistry in the entire North-Eastern Region. The department was established in 1995 with 12 M. Sc. students and four faculty members. Dr. N. N. Siddhanta (1955 – 1984) was the first teacher to join the department and Professor B. Sanjeeva Rao (1955 – 1960) was the first Head of the Department. Student enrollment was raised to 16 when Dr. Arunmani Choudhury (1958 – 1984) , Dr. K. G. Kaimal (1958 – 1984), Dr. M. G. R. Nayar (1958 – 1966) and Dr. K. Bhuyan (1959 – 1995) joined the department in 1959. By 1965 the total faculty strength was 10 when Dr. R. K. Barua (1960 – 1969), Dr. Purna Sharma (1961 – 1988), Dr. P. K. Sarma (1961 – 2000, Dr. N. K. Baishya (1962 – 2000) and Dr. A. B. Barua (1965 – 1981) joined the department.

Research work was started in 1957 with two research scholars under Professor B. Sanjeva Rao. In 1960 the department was well equipped for research work with two UV-Visible spectrometers, an electrophoresis system and the infrastructure was further strengthened in 1965 when the department purchased a infra-red spectrometer. In 1965 four students were awarded Ph. D. degree under the guidance of Professor R. K. Barua.

The present building (area app.20,000 sq ft) was occupied in 1965 when the enrollment was raised to 30 students. The extension building (area app. 4,000 sq ft) with a lecture gallery was built in 1978. The present enrollment of M. Sc. students is 35; about 40% of these are selected under the Central Government reservation policy and meritorious students from Universities all over the country are selected (upto a maximum of 20% of total seats) based on an Entrance Test.

The department was granted autonomous status by the Executive Council in 1991; under this the department conducts its own examinations and academic programme. The semester system with continuous evaluation was introduced in 1994 where the course content is distributed over four semesters. First three semesters have common courses, while in the fourth semester elective courses and specialization in three branches of chemistry are offered. Students are allowed to carry out research work as a part of M. Sc. dissertation. The elective courses cover most of the frontier areas in the subject. Syllabus is revised every five years and the B. Sc. Syllabus is revised every ten years. Internal evaluation is 20% of total marks, which is based on two sessional examinations, home assignments and weekly seminars; the remaining 80% marks are allotted to external examination at the end of each semester. The percentage of pass is about 100 % and about 80% of the students secure first class marks. So far about 90 students have qualified for UGC/CSIR NET examination and about 20 students qualified in the GATE examinations. Few students M. Sc. students were selected for the summer training programme in IISc, Bangalore and other premier institutions of India.

In the initial years (1960 - 1980) the department has made a major contribution in research on vitamin A, which led to publication of several papers, most notably two in Nature (London) and six more in Biochemical Journal of high impact factor. Since the early seventies research in Analytical Chemistry was the additional contribution; this was followed by research on environmental pollution analysis and the present position where the department is attracting funds from chemical industries and environmental agencies. In the last 15 years the publications of the department are centered around other research areas of current interest such as spectroscopic studies, physical inorganic chemistry, electron transfer studies, catalysis by zeolites and clays, synthetic organic chemistry, quantum chemistry and computer applications.

Recently, the UGC and the DST has recognized four thrust areas of the department under the COSIST and the FIST programme; these are-

• Bioinorganic Chemistry
• Catalysis
• Synthetic Chemistry, and
• Computer Modeling

With relatively young faculty with good academic background, reasonably good infra-structure and facilities and high quality students the department shall continue to play a leading role in teaching and research in chemistry in the future.