Welcome to Botany
Introduction
The Department of Botany was established as Biology Department under the University of Dhaka in 1939 by the active leadership of Professor Panchanan Maheshwari. At that time, the department consisted of Botany and Zoology and the students were enrolled under BSc pass degree program. The students of the then Bengal Agriculture Institute (At present, Sher-e-Bangla Agriculture University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207) were also taught for the BSc pass degree in the same Biology Department. At the beginning, the department was housed in the neighboring Chemistry Department, situated in the Curzon Hall Campus of the University of Dhaka. The department was later on shifted to the present building. In 1948, the first MSc program in Botany was started and the first batch of the students were awarded MSc in 1950.
The department was established with an aim to produce quality graduates through offering BS (Hons), MS, MPhil and PhD degrees. Initially, a three-year BSc (Hons) course was introduced in 1954 since the establishment of the Department of Botany. Over the years, the Department of Botany has grown in every sphere of the botanical disciplines and now has taken a shape one of the largest departments in the University of Dhaka. Considering the needs of global equivalence of its BSc (Hons) degree program, in 1998, the department converted its three year BSc (Hons) degree program to a four year BSc (Hons) degree which continued until 2008. From 2008, onward the name of the degree was changed to BS (Hons) degree.
At present, there are 28 members of teaching staff and 33 supporting technical and office staffs catering the needs of around 450 students including a number of MPhil and PhD research scholars. The department also offers non major courses for other departments of the University of Dhaka such as Department of Soil, Water and Environment; Department of Zoology and Department Geography and Environment. The number of non-major students is currently around 490.
The Department has a long tradition of research in various fields of plant sciences under the MS, MPhil and PhD programs. The faculty members along with their research students pursue research in diverse fields which has resulted in a large number of research publications in various national and international journals. The department is also collaborating academic and research programs with India, Japan, UK, Germany and USA.
Besides well equipped laboratories for the students, there is a rich seminar library. In each year, new books and journals are purchased and added to enrich and update the library. A total of over 16,000 reference books, journals, reports and proceedings are now present in the seminar library. In the recent year, a computer laboratory with internet facility has been established for the use by the students and researchers.