Profile

The School of Chemical Sciences of the Kannur University, Swami Anantha Theertha Campus, formerly known as the Department of Chemical Science (Material Science) came into existence in the year 2002.  The Department has been started to undertake post graduate teaching and research activities in Chemistry with specialization in Material Science which is a frontier area in science.

The Department was formally inaugurated by the then Director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) of the UGC, Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai on  24th January, 2003 at Morrikovval in Payyanur in the Kannur District.  The Department started functioning in a rented accommodation in the second floor of the Rendezvous Sports Complex building at Moorikovval in Payyanur.  The opening of a University Department in the frontier area of scientific development has been a vision come true of the higher education authorities of the Kannur University and is the fulfillment of a long cherished ambition of everybody concerned about the development of higher education facilities in science subjects in this culturally rich, but socially and educationally backward area of north Kerala.

The first Coordinator of the Department was Prof. C.P Prabhakaran, Professor and Head (Rtd.) from  Kerala University. The second Coordinator of the Department was Prof. T.D. Radhakrishnan Nair, Professor and Head (Rtd.) from the University of Calicut.

This School of Chemical Sciences of the Kannur University, Payyanur Campus presently undertakes PG teaching in Chemistry for the M.Sc. degree Chemistry (Material Science) course.  The course is being offered under choice based credit and semester system. The design of the semesters are in such a way that the students learn topics common to the general M.Sc. course in Chemistry of the University and specific application oriented topics on Material Science.  In the final semester, the students have to undertake a project work for a minimum period of six months in a reputed national laboratory.

The Department has been able to produce nineteen CSIR/UGC-JRF, ten GATE qualified students, four KSCSTE fellowships and fourteen NET qualified students within the short period. Eight of our students are doing their research work in foreign countries and some of the students are pursuing their research work at prestigious institutions like Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, National Chemical laboratory, Pune, National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Centre for Material for Electronic Technology, Thrissur, Amrutha Institute for Medical Science and Technology, Kochi and  Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

The School has already established good research laboratories for Chemistry, Nanoscience and Biochemistry. External funded projects from KSCSTE, Kerala Government, DAE-BRNS, Government of India and DST, Government of India and UGC are being undertaken and ongoing by the faculty members of the department for a total cost of 48 lakhs. The current ongoing research topics are  Solar Cells, Nanomaterials, Photo/catalysis  and Biomaterials. Nine students have been awarded their PhD , four have submitted their thesis, and twenty students are pursuing their research. So far we have published thirty papers in reputed international and national journals. Our research scholars have presented papers in national and international conferences/seminars and have been awarded as the  best paper presentations numerous times.