Department of Physics was established
in the year 1958. It had a modest beginning with only three teachers under the
stewardship of its founder Head, Professor Devendra Sharma, who guided the destiny
of the department till he was called upon to take up the responsibility of Vice
Chancellor of this university in July 1973. The department started with about
10 students at M.Sc. Level and 60 students at the B.Sc. Level. Now these numbers
have risen to 40 to 240 respectively. Gradually the number of research scholars
has also increased considerably. Nearly 90 students have already been awarded
Ph.D. degree. Several research projects financed by State and Central agencies
have been successfully completed. E-mail facility is also available in the department
by the curtsey of IUCAA and DOE. Foucault’s Pendulum Tower has been constructed
and the pendulum is going to be installed soon in the department. In the honour
of our founder Head, Professor D. Sharma, the ‘Devendra Sharma Centre for
Astrophysical studies’ (DSCAS) is being set up with the financial assistance
of the State Government.
The Department continued to grow later under the
dynamic leadership of Professor N. K. Sanyal, Professor R.M. Mishra and Professor
R.C. Maheshwari, who were renowned persons in the area of their research activities.
The rein of the department came into the hands of Professor Maheshwar Mishra in
January, 1997 and then in the hand of Prof. H. B. Lal, Prof. J. N. Rai and Prof.
C.P.D. Dwivedi. Prof. Jai Prakash, Prof. Suraj Lal Srivastava took the charge
of the office in July, 2006. All of them have made every effort to maintain the
high standards set up by their predecessors. Now, when we look back and ponder
on our achievements, it is gratifying to find that after a gap of nearly forty
five years of its existence a large number of students from this department are
occupying high academic positions in India and abroad. There are others who are
holding various high positions in civil services and Defence research organizations
or other research organizations of our country.
In the beginning research
facilities in the field of molecular spectroscopy and the luminescence were developed
and a number beginning in the field of semiconductor devices, polymer studies
and theoretical studies in the field of exact solutions of Einstein field equations
were also carried out. With growing numbers of teaching staff, studies in the
field of crystal structure using X-ray techniques, investigations in the field
of liquid crystals and biomolecules, experimental studies in solar physics and
categorization of stars, studies of stellar matter particularly black holes and
galactic clusters were undertaken. A strong group in the field of supersonic conductors,
dielectric polarization, absorption and dispersion studies and rare earth oxides
were also developed in the mid seventies. Studies in the field of thin-film solar
energy conversion devices, Organic semiconductors and currently multilayer and
nanostructure materials and devices have been developed.
A group in Biophysics
is studying transcription in DNA molecules and junction of these molecules. This
group is also carrying out conformal mapping of biomolecules using X-ray techniques
and NMR investigations. Another group in the field of Particle Physics is also
active and is engaged in collaborative programme with CERN, Germany. Most of the
faculty members after having their training in the country have worked in renowned
research laboratories and centres of theoretical studies abroad. There are many
Humboldt and DAAD fellows, post doctoral fellows is SIDA, Sweden and ICTP, Italy
and others have either worked under academic exchange programmes or invitation
programmes.
