Head of Department
Youtube ChannelBRIEF PROFILE OF THE DEPARTMENT
The Department of Geology, University of Lucknow, is one of the pioneer departments of India and is known all over the world for its contribution to earth sciences, especially in the fields of Sedimentology Micropaleontology and Himalayan Geology.
This department was established in 1942 by late Prof. Birbal Sahni, F.R.S. Later on, it was headed by Prof. S. R. N. Rao, Prof. R.C. Misra, Prof. S. N. Singh, Prof. K. P. Vimal, Prof. S. K. Singh, Prof. I. B. Singh, Prof. M. P. Singh, Prof. A. R. Bhattacharya, Prof. A. K. Jauhri, Prof. N. L. Chhabra, Prof. K. K. Agarwal, Prof. Vibhuti Rai and Prof. Rameshwar Bali who carried forward the excellent work in the department. Presently, it is being headed by Prof. Ajai Mishra. The department is also proud of having in the faculty, at one time or the other, eminent geoscientists like Prof. H. L. Chhibber, Prof. P. N. Ganju, Prof. B. S. Tewari, Prof. S. B. Bhatia, Prof. A. D. Kharakwal, Prof. K. S. Valdiya, Prof. Ashok Sahni and Prof. Surendra Kumar.
The department is also responsible for initiating the UP State Directorate of Geology and Mining and also took active participation in the establishment of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun. The department houses the Palaeontological Society of India which is publishing an internationally recognised biannual journal regularly. The department has received financial support through DRS, DSA, COSIST and CAS programme of UGC for installation of basic instrumental facilities. The department has also been funded by Department of Science and Technology through its PURSE and FIST programmes. It has been rated as “Excellent” by DST under their FIST programme. Most of the faculty members have successfully completed independent major and minor research projects sponsored by Department of Science and Technology, CSIR, UGC, Department of Atomic energy, State government etc. The alumni of the department have held top positions in Geological Survey of India, Central Ground Water Board, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, National Research Institutes, Educational Institutions, Ministry of Hydrocarbons, National Power Grid Corporation, Atomic Mineral Division, besides Indian Administrative and Indian Forest services. The alumni have the distinction of having been awarded top order awards including Padma Bhushan, Padmashri, Alexender Von Humboldt, DAAD, Jawahar Lal Nehru International scholarships, National Mineral Awards, Fellow National Academy of Science etc.
The department specializes in the very best of teacher – student relationship. Most of the faculty members have national and international collaborations with various research institutes, Universities etc. The students are invited and encouraged to provide a feedback and make necessary suggestions, which may improve the learning process and other facilities in the department. Faculty members have been visiting international institutes and centres under various collaborative research programmes. They along with the students have also been regularly attending international seminars and conferences.
Major Research Contributions
The major research contributions of the departments have been towards discovering some of the economic minerals of Uttar Pradesh, establishing Mesozoic biostatigraphy of parts of Kuthchch and Rajasthan, establishing the age of Krol-Tal sequence of Lesser Himalaya; understanding the structural, tectonic and morphotectonic evolution of Central Himalaya based on field based studies and sandbox analogue modelling; discovering new fossil assemblages from the Lesser Himalaya, Vindhyan and Marwar Supergroup having implications on the age and evolution of early life; an in-depth understanding of the sedimentological and morphotectonic evolution of the Indogangetic foreland basin, inferring late Quaternary palaeoclimate by carrying out multiproxy studies from Ganga plain and central Himalayan glaciers, structural and petrological studies of Bundelkand massif; River dynamics and environmental geochemistry of river basins; qualitative analysis and ground water exploration studies, landslide and slope failure studies of central Himalayan region etc.
The research work of the faculty members have been published in the high impact factor research journals including Nature; Science; Tectonophysics; Bulletin Geological Society of America; Precambrian Research; Journal of Sedimentology; Sedimentary Geology; Micropalaentology; Gondwana Research; Lithos; Facies; Ichnos; Quaternary Science Reviews; Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology ; Sedimentology; Geomorphology; Quaternary International; International Journal of Geosciences; Environmental Geology; Geology; Hydrological Science Journal; International journal of Earth science; Environmental Geology; Journal Geological Society-London; Journal of Asian Earth Science; Engineering Geology, Neural Computing and Applications, Measurement, Engineering with Computers etc.
Major Facilities available (Infrastructure)
The department has good infrastructure facilities that can cater to the needs for both teaching as well as carrying out research work in major fields of Earth Sciences. There are well furnished classroom with projector facilities and internet connectivity. The laboratories are also well equipped that furniture and fixtures are of good quality. The major equipments that department has are : Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, (AAS), Logitech Rock Cutting and Thin Section preparation Systems, sophisticated microscopes with large image Processing System, State of the art computers, printers, scanners, photocopying machine, CCTV cameras etc. and a well furnished lab for processing of remotely sensed data. WiFi Internet facility is available to all the students, researchers and faculty members. The department houses a huge collection of more than 5500 books and around 6000 issues of different research journals in its library that are available to all the PG and research students.
Besides having two field vehicles, the department houses a state of art museum having a vast, diverse and exquisite collection of different types of rock forming and precious to semiprecious minerals, different types of rocks and diverse and rare collection of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils belonging to various stratigraphic horizons and geological formations of the country and outside the country. It also has various deformational structures including folds, faults, shear zones and other tectonites apart from having ores of metallic and non metallic minerals, building stones, meteorites etc.
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