About the Department

The History The Department of Inorganic Chemistry was established in the year 1976 under the Headship of Professor V.V.Ramanujam and succeeded by Professor P. Natarajan and Professor V. Durai. Now the Department is being headed by Professor M. Kandaswamy. Master of Science Programme was introduced in the year 1976. Besides the Department also offers M.Phil. and Research Programmes. In the Master of Science Programme the first year students have to undergo a common Chemistry programme and they have to specialize in Inorganic Chemistry in the second year. The Department of Inorganic Chemistry offers Choice Based Credit System for M.Sc. and M.Phil. Programmes in the School of Chemical Sciences. The students are admitted to the M.Sc. and M.Phil. programmes based on the performance in the qualifying examination as well as in the entrance examination they appear. Since the inception of the Department, 51 Research Scholars were awarded Ph.D. Degree and 20 scholars are currently undergoing research for their Ph.D. Degree and about 75 students were awarded M.Phil. Degree and 4 candidates are enrolled for M.Phil.for the academic year 2005-06. The faculty strength of the Department is seven and now it has five (Viz. Professors-2, Lecturers-3) and all of them are qualified with Ph.D. Degree and are recognized to guide students leading to Ph.D programme. The faculty members of the Department have published as many as 250 papers in reputed National and International journals with good impact factors. Professor P. Natarajan former Head of the Department has been awarded Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Chemical Sciences in 1984 for his outstanding contribution in the field of Chemical Sciences. He has won yet another award from Tamilnadu Government for the Best Teacher in the same year. His resourcefulness and versatile performance were duly recognized and he was elected as a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, Tamilnadu Academy of Sciences, Society of Biosciences and Gujarat Academy of Sciences. He was a member of Sigma-psi Scientific Research Society, American Chemical Society and New York Academy of Sciences. Professor Natarajan was also nominated to the Syndicate of the University of Madras. Professor V. Durai, former Head of the Department was elected to the Syndicate of the University of Madras for consecutive two terms. He had served in many committees at various Universities in Southern States in India. He also served as Chairman for Board of Studies in Chemistry and Honorary Director for COSIP-ULP programme. Professor M. Kandaswamy visited Department of Chemistry, Kyushu University, under INSA ? JSPS Exchange Programme in the year 1999 and he was awarded JSPS -Fellowship to visit Japan and to do research in the same department in the year 2001. Professor P.Ramamurthy of this Department has been awarded UGC-Career Award in 1993 and a project was sanctioned to him under Career Award Scheme.. The Awardee had visited Laboratorie de Photocheimie Generale, Mulhouse, France for two times. The Departmental Library has a good collection of books and about 600 books consisting of large number of text books which are useful for M.Sc. and M.Phil. teaching programme besides a good number of books for research purpose. The Department of Inorganic Chemistry has been selected for assistance under UGC-COSIST Programme for Research in the area of Inorganic Chemistry and to improve the PG Education to the tune of Rs.1.00 Crore in two Phases during 1985-1996. Currently, the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has recognized the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Madras for financial assistance under DST-FIST Programme and sanctioned a sum of Rs.22.00 lakhs for research and teaching for the five years (2002-2007). The Department of Inorganic Chemistry has so far completed more than 30 individual research projects sanctioned to the faculty members and about 10 such research projects are in operational, funded by the various funding agencies Viz DST, ISRO, UGC, CSIR, DAE, DRDO, etc., Under Sir C.V.Raman Visiting Professorship, Professor R.H. Schuler Radiation Laboratory, University of Notre Dame, USA. had visited the Department in the year 1984 and Professor D.J.S.Birch, University of Starthclyde, Scotland had visited the Department in the year 1999 and delivered several useful lectures for the benefit of students and teaching fraternity of the Department. Professor H.Okawa, Department of Chemistry, Kyushu University, Japan visited the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Madras and delivered lectures. The Department had organized several National and International Workshops, Seminars and Symposia. Also the department has conducted several UGC sponsored Refresher Courses for the benefit of University and affiliated College teachers through Academic Staff College of the University of Madras. The Department has also conducted several workshops for the College teachers for updating their knowledge for the curriculum improvement under COSIP-ULP Programme. Infrastructure LAB:

The Department of Inorganic Chemistry has fully air-conditioned instrumentation rooms. There are three research laboratories with hi-tech facilities apart from the laboratory for the P.G. students. The Department also has air-conditioned library with internet facility. The lecture halls in the Department are equipped with audio-visual facilities. The total area of the Department is 15,000 Sq. Ft. EQUIPMENT:

The following sophisticated equipments are available for the usage of research scholars and PG students of the Department and also for the usage of students from sister departments and other institutions. 1. Perkin Elmer FTIR Spectrophotometer 2. Perkin Elmer Lamda UV-Visible Spectrophotometer 3. Hitachi 320 UV-Visible Spectrophotometer 4. Varian 3700 Gas Chromatograph 5. CHN Electrochemical Analyser 6. Laser Flash Photolysis spectrometer 7. Excimer Laser, Dye Laser, Nd-YAG Laser 8. Conventional Flash Photolysis Spectrometer 9. Stopped Flow Kinetic Spectrometer 10. Perkin-Elmer Flourimeters Endowments a) Professor V.V.Ramanujam b) Professor P.Natarajan Endowment Library A collection of more than 600 books available in the Departmental Library on various topics.