Physiology | Surendranath College

Brief History of The Department of Physiology

A brief history of the journey of the Department of Physiology, Surendranath College from its inception in 1958 till date :

The teaching of Physiology in this college was started on 21st July 1958 as a pass subject in the Degree course as also the Department , as a result of the initiative and farsightedness of the famous scientist Dr. Gnanendranath Mukherjee , who was also an active participant of the then College Administration.

At the very outset of this Department, Dr. Madhusudan Ghoshal was then only faculty member with a single non teaching staff , Sri Akshay Kumar Pradhan . The number of students then was twenty only . Dr. Sudhanay Ranjan Dutta was one of them , who later joined as a faculty in the Department of Occupational Health at All India Institute of Hygine and Public Health , Kolkata . At that time , the Principal of the College was Ramanimohan Ray – a distinguished educationist .

The Department was started with a space on the 3rd floor of the main building of this College and later it was shifted to the second floor of the Science building along with Botany and Zoology .

The inception and development of the Department was materialized by the encouraging and patronizing attitude of Professor Dr Jyotibhusan Mukhopadhyay , the then HOD of Zoology and Professor Kumud Sankar Das , the then HOD of Botany . The Involvement of this stalwarts was a must, because of the lack of experience of the newly recruited teacher Dr. M S Ghoshal who had joined after his M.Sc .

The first class conducted in the Department was on practical Physiology and the teacher was Dr. Ghoshal . He has taught in this Department for a period of about fifty nine years since 1958 to 2017 , till 1995 as a permanent faculty and then as Guest faculty . He was felicitated in this College by the Department for his glorious fifty years of teaching . He became a legendary teacher during his life time . As a visiting faculty he taught in various post graduate department of different higher education Institutes like Calcutta University , Viswabharati etc . Actually he was fond of teaching and his popularity among the students was exemplary .

Prof. Bhuban Mohan Roychowdhury joined as the second faculty in this Department in 1959 . He was a versatile, genius, talented and successful teacher . He was also the teacher of Dr. Ghoshal . The coordinated effort of the teachers and students helped the Department in its gradual development.

A science exhibition was organized in 1959. The newly formed department participated in the same. Functions of heart of a living animal and Pavlov’s conditioned reflex in a living dog were demonstrated. These demonstrations highly attracted the visitors.

The other faculy members who adorned this Department were Dr. Prasanta K. Dey, Prof. Dwijendra Nath Bagchi, Prof. Ajit K. Gwasawmi, Dr. Ranjit K. Ghoshal, Prof. Subol Ch. Ghosh, Dr. Sankar Nath Ray, Prof. Sakti Mukherjee, Prof Sasanka Bhattacharjee, Pro. Godador Sahu, Prof. Anjan Ray, Prof. Gopal Krishna Fauzder, Dr. Ranatosh Chakraborty, Prof. Asis kumar Sinha, Dr. Tushar Kanti ghosh, Dr. Kishore Sankar Ray, Dr. Bhaswar Mukherjee and Graduate laboratory Instructor Sushen K Pal. With the help of the able and skilful teachers this Department turned out to be one of the best among the departments teaching Physiology in different institutions.

As a lab based subject practical is a part and parcel for the fulfillment of teaching and learning process. The laboratory assistants who joined this department after Sri Pradhan were Sri Subodh Ch. Giri, Sri. Bishnupoda Giri .

Till 1978 , the subject was taught as a Pass subject and the total number of permanent faculty was seven . The Department and the College Authority made an effort to introduce Honours Course in the Department and there endeavour was fruitful in 1979. Two new faculty positions were created and Dr. Tushar Kanti Ghosh and Dr. Kishor Sankar Ray were recruited .

The space constraint was solved by allotting a part of the ground floor in the main building . Later one extra room was attached with the existing space in the second floor of Science building . More over a part of the corridor space in between the Department of Physiology and Botany was included for research work . As this space was not sufficient enough for research activities another space for this purpose has been allotted on the fourth floor of the Science building .

The first BSc Pass batch passed out in 1960 and the first Honours batch in 1982 . Dr. Ranatosh Chakraborty who passed out from the Department in 1960 was inducted as a faculty of this department .

Many students who passed from this Department from 1960 till now had / has been functioning as reputated scientists , faculties and administrators within the country and also abroad.

Present teaching and non teaching staff of the Department .

Dr. Susanta Kumar Patra Associate Professor
Dr. Mira Sil Ghosh Associate Professor
Dr. Sukti Chakraborty ( Sinha) Associate Professor
Subhrajit Banerjee Assistant Professor
Dr.Barnali Ray Basu Associate Professor
Firdausi Ahamed Assistant Professor
Olivia Chowdhury SACT
Mallika Bhattacherjee SACT

Non teaching staff

Amaresh Hazra Skilled lab assistant
Krishna Das Adhikary lab assistant ( Adhoc )
Rajesh Shaw lab assistant ( Adhoc )

Vision

This department aims at contributing to the intellectual,cultural,social and economic development of an individual and thus of the society .

Mission

Providing quality education
Fostering scholarship
Kindling inquisitiveness in the young minds
Identifying hidden talents
Providing opportunities for students that are instrumental in realizing their full potential
Inculcate values.

Programme Outcome

Physiology as a subject aims to deliver an in depth scientific understanding of human body function in a harmonic and sequestrated milieu of the organ systems.Cardiovascular system, Nervous System, Respiratory system, Excretory system, Digestive system, Musculoskeletal system, Endocrine system play an important role in controlling our bodily functions.These systems form the core area of our subject,while Biochemistry, Biophysics, Microbiology & Immunology , Molecular Biology, Nutrition, Sports and Exercise Physiology, Ergonomics, Biostatistics, Environmental Physiology, Toxicology and Pharmacology are taught as allied subjects that form the Discipline Specific Electives courses.All these help nurture and develop a comprehensive understanding of Human Physiology. At the same time certain Skill Enhancement Courses like Clinical Biochemistry ,Hematological techniques ,Bioinformatics ,Xenobiotics aim to develop more specialized areas which involve Physiology of health and disease. A student of this course would be able to pursue in academic spheres as well as attain capabilities of entrepreneurship and work in diversified research areas both in applied and basic fields.

Best Practices

Strives to inculcate a sense of social responsibility in the students by inspiring community work through projects like health assessments and nutritional guidance in remote areas.
Individual mentoring and counselling of students by teachers .
Builds up a good teacher-student relationship that help maintain a strong SNC-Alumni in Physiology through which Department remains in touch with the ex-students on regular basis.
Encourage continuous students’ feedback and assess students’ progress.
Easy access to books through seminar library and ebook versions.