Head of the Department
Prof. Rajesh Kumar
Phone: 9412090052,
E-mail:
rajesh4971@yahoo.com ,
Department of Environmental Microbiology (earlier known as Department of Microbiology till 2020) was initially sanctioned
as an Innovative Project for M.Sc. Environmental Microbiology under the School for Environmental Sciences from the session
2007-2008. It was sanctioned as an independent department by UGC in the year 2010. The Department at present offers M.Sc. and
Ph.D. programmes in Environmental Microbiology. Apart from this, there are two PG courses under Innovative and Contemporary Programme
running in the Department viz. M.Sc. in Industrial Microbiology & M.Sc. in Food Microbiology and Toxicology that take care of the applied
aspects of Microbiology and are industry and job oriented. At present, there are two Professors and seven Assistant Professors
in the department with diverse fields of specialization namely Microbial Ecology, Bioremediation and Metagenomics, Rhizosphere Biology/Microbiology,
Stress Physiology and General Microbiology. The department has well equipped M.Sc. Laboratory and developing state of the art research laboratories.
Sustainability of environment is important for the survival of the living creatures on the planet. Increasing population and industrialization has further aggravated the pressure on the natural resources and microorganisms can provide answer to several of these problems and maintain ecological balance. Besides this, microorganisms play a pivotal role in many industrial processes including food industry. Owing to the importance of microorganisms in diverse fields and for the maintenance of ecological balance, focus of the Department is to combat the diverse problems of the environment such as soil and water pollution and their remediation using microbial resources besides their application in various industries and in food processing industry.
The emphasis of research in the Department is on utilizing microbes for enhancing crop yields in eco-friendly manner, biocontrol of pathogens, biodegradation of industrial wastes with emphasis on distillery and pulp paper industry, and microbe based foods for nutritional security. The Department has research grants from National funding agencies like DST, DBT and UGC. Department was included in FIST Programme of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi at Level 1 and a grant of Rs. 28 lakhs was sanctioned under the scheme. Rhizosphere Biology laboratory of the Department hosted a CV Raman International Fellow during 2017-2018, putting the University on the international map. In future, the Department vows to create excellence in the field of bioremediation, sustainable use of natural resources which is one of the target area of research. Students in the Department are trained for all the modern techniques in Microbiology and Biotechnology. Regular seminars and interaction meetings as per UGC guidelines are organized regularly in the department. The students of final semester also have to carry out dissertation work in which they get to know about how to pursue minor research projects.
Mission and Mandate
The focus of the Department is to combat the diverse problems of the environment as microbes can provide sustainable solutions to several of them. Mandate of the Department is:
Development of Centre for Excellence to apply microbes for sustaining the environment by utilizing green and low input technology
Establishment of a nodal national center for Microbial Diversity and Bioremediation
Provide solutions to industries in relation to environmental problems and remediation of ecosystems
Develop trained and skilled manpower according to the needs of industry and society
Development of sustainable techniques and approaches in the field of environmental and agriculture microbiology for a better and sustainable future.
Infrastructural Facilities
To achieve these mandate, following laboratories have have been established in the Department by the faculty members:
Rhizosphere Biology Laboratory
Bioremediation and Metagenomics Laboratory-I
Bioremediation and Metagenomics Laboratory-II
Microbial biodegradation and bioremediation Laboratory
Applied Microbiology Laboratory
Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology
Major and Minor Equipments
UV-VIS Spectrophotometer (02)
Milli-Pore water assembly (01)
Gel Documentation system (01)
PCR (1)
pH Meter (01)
Centrifuge (02)
Laminar Flow (03)
BOD Incubator (02)
Autoclave (02)
Ultra Sonicator (01)
Deep Freezer (01)
Oven (01)
Weighing Balance (02)
Microwave oven (01)
Overhead projector (01)
Rotatory shaker (01)
Gel Electrophoresis (01)
Refrigerators (14)
Ion Meter Hanna (01)
Rotary Vacuum Evaporator (01)
Electrodes(01)
Spectrophotometer Nanodrop (01)
Computer workstation