Department of Physics
About the Department
The Department of Physics was established at Lahore in 1934, moved to Delhi for some time and then to Govt. College, Hoshiarpur (Punjab) after partition. Subsequently, the Department was shifted to Chandigarh in 1958.
The Department had previously received grants under the UGC- COSIP (College Science Improvement Programme) from 1977-83, SAP (Special Assistance Programme) from 1980-88 and COSIST (Committee of Strengthening of infrastructure in Science and Technology) from 1984-91. Since 1988, it has been accorded the status of a Centre of Advanced Study (CAS) by UGC with three major thrust areas: Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Solid-State Physics - a unique achievement. At present the Department has the strength of 21 faculty members, 2 UGC Faculty, 36 Assisting staff and 2 daily wage staff, apart from Post-doctoral fellows under various funding schemes as well as project scientists/investigators. There are about 108 research students and 437 B.Sc. (Hons. School) Physics, M.Sc. (Hons. School) Physics, B.Sc. (Hons. School) Physics (Specialization in Electronics) and M.Sc. (Hons. School) (Specialization in Electronics) students on the rolls of the Department. About 150 B.Sc. (Hons. School) students of other departments study Physics subjects as Generic Elective Courses.
The faculty members have been honoured with Meghnad Saha Award, Goyal Prize (Kurukshetra University), Sir C.V. Raman Award, Hari Om Trust Award, S.N. Satya Murthi Young Scientist Award, DAE Young Scientist Award, Himachal Scientists of the Year award 2011, Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International fellowship, Mercator Professorship, Homi Bhaba Fellowship, Emeritus Scientistships, Ramanna Fellowship, Raman Fellowship. They have been elected for Indian Academy of Sciences fellowship, Joliot Curie fellowship, Alexander Von Humboldt fellowships, DFG (German Research Society) Fellowship, BMFT (Ministry of Research and Technology of Germany like DST) fellows, UNESCO/IAEA Fellowship, WE-Heraeus Fellowship, Heinrich Hertz Foundation fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship, Commonwealth fellowship, IN2P3-CNRS Fellowship, France, Third World Academy of Sciences fellowships and UGC National Lecturer Fellowship awards. Our faculty had also served/ is serving at various administrative positions such as Vice-Chancellors of Panjab University and other universities.
The Department is having research collaborations with institutions like Royal Military College of Canada, Canada; University of Notre Dame, USA; BNL, USA; Fermilab USA; CERN Geneva; Bonn University Germany; University of Bayreuth, Wuerzburg, Munich and Berlin in Germany, Chemistry Deptt., City College of New York (CUNY), New York; KEK Japan, Chinese academy of Sciences, Shanghai China; ICTP, Trieste; Univ. of Illinois, USA; BNL, USA; Max. Planck Institute, Germany; Univ. of Leipzig, Germany; SUBATECH, Nantes, France; Instt. for Theoretische Physics, Tubingen, Germany; Instt of Nuclear Studies, Warsaw University, Poland; Univ. of Milano, Italy; J.L. Univ., Germany; J.W. Goethe Univ., Frankfurt, Germany; Instt. of Nucl. Physics, Strasbourg, France; University of Surrey, Gilford, U.K.; University of Hawaii, Cincinnati; Virginia Tech., Princeton University, University of Antwerp, Belgium, JINR Dubna Russia, IUC, Kolkata; VECC, Kolkata; TIFR, Mumbai; IAUC., New Delhi; IIT, Kanpur; Delhi University, Delhi; Mumbai University, Mumbai; IIT, Chennai; I.O.P. Bhubaneshwar; H.P. University, Shimla; T.B.R.L., P.G.I.M.E.R., C.S.I.O., Chandigarh, Jammu University, Jammu. The department has MOU with IUAC, New Delhi, for joint faculty appointment and to various academic exchange programs for Accelerator based research.
UGC had sanctioned 3 crores under CAS-V Phase (2015-2020) grant under improvement of Infrastructural facilities of the Physics department. Funds of Rs. 3.5 crores for infrastructure development have been sanctioned by the Department of Science and Technology under FIST programme to upgrade Teaching and Research facilities.
Achievements
The faculty members have been honoured with Meghnad Saha award, Goyal Prize (Kurukshetra University), Sir C.V. Raman Award, Hari Om Trust Award, Mercator Professorship, Homi Bhaba Fellowship, Emeritus Scientistships, Ramanna Fellowship, S.N. Satyamurthi Young Scientist Award and DAE Young Scientist Award. They have been elected for Indian Academy of Sciences Fellowship, Joliot Curie Fellowship, Alexander Von Humboldt Fellowships, DFG (German Research Society) Fellowship, UNESCO/IAEA Fellowdhip, WE-Heraeus Fellowship, Henrich Hertz Foundation Fellowship, Fullbright Fellowship, Commonwealth Fellowship, Third World Academy of Sciences Fellowships, UGC National Lecturer Fellowship Awards, Associateship of ICTP, CERN Associate, etc. The department had the honour of having Prof. Yash Pal, former UGC Chairman on its faculty, Prof. K.N. Pathak was Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh from July 2000 to July 2006 and Prof. S. Prakash was Vice-Chancellor, Jivaji University, Gwalior from February 2001 to November 2006.
Projects
There are number of research projects, some of them worth crore rupees, under national/international collaborations are operating in the department.