Growth Spiral
UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA
Acentre for nanotechnology. Fourteen patents secured in 2011. Innovation is now an East- side story.
The white colonial- era buildings on its College Street campus suggest an institution caught in a time warp but looks are deceptive. The University of Calcutta, ranked in the top five year after year in the INDIA TODAYNielsen best universities survey, has moved up a notch to third place. The university scores on its interdisciplinary and innovative research, something its Vice- Chancellor Suranjan Das, 58, professor of history and an alumnus of the University of Calcutta, emphasises: “The balance between conventional subjects and emerging areas like biological, social and applied sciences has contributed to the university’s growth curve.” The key is not just quantitative growth in terms of expansion in the number of courses, departments or students but qualitative improvement in academic standards, adds Das, who has been at the helm of university affairs since 2008.
A series of interdisciplinary programmes has propelled the university’s gradual shift towards a more global and modern institution from the erstwhile go- to place for traditional fields of study. The Centre for Research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology now offers a range of short- term training courses in basic and advanced cytometry— the characterisation and measurement of cells and cellular constituents— and hosts workshops on applications of cell sorting and imaging in biological research. The centre built a modern facility for cell culture and has 54 ongoing research projects involving 58 faculty members and 51 project fellows.
The interdisciplinary programme of life sciences at Dr B. C. Guha Centre