Plants are symbolic of life on
earth and the greenery unique to this planet comes from the very humble plant
community. Not only this, plants being the primary producers, satisfy the
hunger of other organisms. Their products are also put to various uses by human
beings. The Department of Botany, St. Albert’s College (Autonomous) is
committed to enlightening youngsters about this very vital group of organisms
by way of teaching as well as research. The Department got recognition as an approved
Research Centre of the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam in 2007. Presently
there are four research guides in the Department specializing in varied areas
of Botany. The major areas of research interest of the Department include
Environmental Science, Plant Physiology, Mycology, Applied Botany, Molecular
Biology, Genetic Engineering, Plant taxonomy, Molecular Phylogeny etc. The
Department has Plant Tissue Culture Lab, Plant Taxonomy Lab, Wet Lab, Microbiology
Lab and Cytology & Molecular Biology Lab for the Research scholars.
Moreover, the Department has state of the art facilities for doing research
which includes instruments like Refrigerated centrifuge, soxhlet apparatus,
-20ºC deep freezer, incubator, UV transilluminator, autoclave, research
compound microscope, stereo zoom microscope, distillation unit etc. In addition
to this, instruments relevant to life science research like PCR, Gel
Documentation system, HPLC, GC etc. are available for use in the DST- FIST
funded central instrumentation facility of the College. The faculty members are
actively involved in research activities not only in the form of PhD guidance
but also in the form of externally funded projects. The Department strives to
become a significant knowledge creator in the coming years.
Dr. J Jameson Research Group
