About the Department of Bio Sciences

The department of Biosciences had its humble origins in V.P.Mahavidyalaya, Vallabh Vidyanagar, as Department of Botany in the year 1958. The present premises located very close to the University Administrative Offices, were acquired in the year 1972 and inaugurated by Prof. M .S . Swaminathan, the then Director General, ICAR, New Delhi. Since the inception of the Department, the founder members of its teaching faculty and their successors worked relentlessly to establish high standards of teaching and research that brought recognition to the department at national and international levels. In the year 1977, the University Grants Commission, New Delhi gave generous funds to the department for its expansion programmes and this resulted in re-christening the department as Department of Biosciences. The department now offers five post-graduate courses and conducts research in various fields. The expansion enabled the department to keep pace with the advances in Biological Sciences which in turn helped the faculty members to widen their research areas to deal with contemporary issues related to agriculture, environment, biodiversity, health care etc., The Department is active in shaping the vision 2010 of the University by taking up extensive R&D Programmes which are being supported by various national agencies like UGC, DBT, CSIR, DOE, ICAR and several other state government departments and some autonomous organizations. The Department is also supported by UGC- SAP(DRS), UGC- SAP II (DSA), UGC-COSIST and DST- FIST programmes.