The Dept of Physics is one of the oldest and prestigious Departments of our Institution. Founded under the pioneering guidance of renowned Jesuits like Fr. Lafonte in the middle of nineteenth century and contributions over years like Fr. Verstraeten, Fr. Bonhom & others, the department has grown into the present structure with both UG and PG sections and furthermore, a lot of research activities. The present faculty members are highly dedicated for quality physics education with innovative methods of theory teaching & practices and inspiring & guided laboratory classes.

The M.Sc. (PG) course in Physics with specialization in Astrophysics & Space Sciences, offered jointly with Bose Institute, Kolkata, have been afloat for four years and have slowly but steadily grown in stature in the last three years. The first two batches of the M.Sc. programme, already passed out, are either suitably placed in jobs or research or are working for furthering their options.

Departmental Activities: Student’s Achievement (UG)

• Roopayan Ghosh (1st Year) was awarded the Mumraj Aggarwal Rashtriya Purashkar for being in the top ten in the merit list of ISC examination 2010. The award was given away by the honorable Governor of West Bengal on August 28.Soumita Mondal (1st Year) was awarded the Mumraj Agarwal Rashtriya Purashkar for scoring 95.6% in CBSE examination 2010. The award was given away by the honorable Governor of West Bengal on August 28. Sugandha (1st Year) was selected for the College Table Tennis team.
• Dipayan Saha (2nd Year) represented the College in Badminton and won the inter- college badminton championship 2010.
• Aparna Bhattacharya (3rd Year) participated in the Asian Science Camp 2010 organised by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.
• Saikat Banerjee has been awarded the undergraduate Associateship of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 2010. He has worked under the guidance of Dr. Parthasarathi Mitra in the month of June this year.
• Ranajoy Banerjee (3rd Year) performed at MaxMueller Bhavan in July 2010.
• Shaili Sett (3rd Year) sang songs of contemporaries of Rabindranath Tagore at Akashbani-All India Radio on August 9, 2010.

Student’s Achievement (PG)

• Five of the second year M.Sc Students went on to attend the Winter School on Astroparticle Physics held at Ooty by TIFR. All Space Science students went on to conduct experiments on Atmospheric Physics at the Mayapuri Campus of Bose Institute, Darjeeling.
• The past academic year in 2010 started with the students with specialization on Astro-particle Physics visiting ARIES, Nainital for a short exposure to frontier research in Optical Astronomy in January, 2010. Mr. Bappaditya Manna and Mr. Avik Banerjee accompanied the students on this trip. They spent a week there learning how to align a 1m optical telescope and perform basic observations.
• Among the 15 students who passed out in May-June 2010, Mr. Subhas Bose is currently enrolled as a Ph.D student at ARIES, Nainital.
• Some of the students who passed out in 2009 cleared the UGC-CSIR-NET examination and are absorbed as Ph.D students in SINP (Mr. Souvik Priyam Adhya) and Bose Institute (Kinkar Saha, Sudipa Upadhyay, Sayan Biswas)

Teacher’s Achievement

• Dr. Sankhasubhra Nag was invited as a Participant at Resource Person at the HCBSE, Mumbai for Physics Olympiad Camp in March 2010 and is again invited as a Resource Person for the Resource Generation camp for Physics Olympiad there to be held in September, 2010.
• Dr. Sankha Subhra Nag and Dr. Suparna Roychowdhury went on an academic visit to HRI, Allahabad in March, 2010 for collaborative work with Dr. Tapas Das and Prof. Bosena Czerny, Copernicus Astronomical Center, Poland.
• Dr. Sarbari Guha visited IUCAA, Pune during May in connection to her research work in the field of relativity.
• Dr. Tapati Dutta attended the 3rd International Conference on Science and Complexity at Cankaya University, Ankara from July 28-31, 2010 where she read two research papers.
• Mrs. Koyel Ganguly attended the Summer School on Cosmology at ICTP, Trieste, Italy on July 29 & 30, 2010.
• Dr. Subhankar Ghosh has been selected as a Mentor/ Resource Person for the country-wide INSPIRE Programme, Department of Science & Technology ( DST), Govt. of India.
• Dr. Tapati Dutta visited France on an Indo-French collaborative project for a month in CNRS, Montpellier, France.
• Dr. Shibaji Banerjee and Dr. Suparna Roychowdhury were invited for a two day workshop on Phoenix interfacing kit at Physics Department, Presidency College, Kolkata in August, 2010. Dr. Shibaji Banerjee delivered lectures on programming in Python and Phoenix in addition to conducting hands-on session for the students. Dr. Suparna Roychowdhury acted as a resource person during those hands-on sessions.

In addition, Mr. Arvind Paranjape from IUCAA visited the department for consultation and advice on upgradation of the SXC Observatory. The faculties, along with Mr. Paranjape visited Gurap (Gurao Maria Sneha Sadan) to explore the option of setting up a remote Astronomical Observatory for the course as well as for future research.

Dr. Tapati Dutta and Dr. Shibaji Banerjee have worked towards the formulation of the utilization of the DST-FIST Grant at Level 0 for the College along with the faculties of the Science Departments and have presented a talk in INSA, New Delhi leading to its sanctionment in November 2010.

Intake

• B.Sc. General (for students with honours in other subjects) - 160
• B.Sc. Honours - 45
• M.Sc. - 16

Infrastructural Facilities Available

1. U.G and P.G Laboratories
2. U.G and P.G Seminar Libraries
3. On-campus Astronomical Observatory
4. P.G Computing Center
5. P.G Extended Campus (at Bose Institute) with Classroom, Laboratory and Library

Course Structure

General Course

Honours Course

Sem I - VI Hons (2009-2012)

Sem III - VI Hons (2010-2013)

Sem I - VI Hons (2011-2014)

 

Admission

Physics Honours: On the basis of the marks obtained in Physics and Mathematics in the board examination.

Physics General: Mostly on the basis of the preference given by the students at the time of admission. Allocation made by the Dean’s office.

M.Sc. Physics: On the basis of an admission test on MCQs, followed by an interview.