The Department of Botany had its illustrious beginning way back from 1940 with the introduction of the Intermediate course in Natural Science with Professor Bonavis Bonnel as faculty member. In the year 1942. Undergraduate course (B.Sc. Botany) was introduced leading to the full fledged establishment of the Botany Department under the able leadership of distinguished Professor Dr. M. T. Phillipose during 1943-1945. He was succeeded by eminent Professor S.K. Pillai (1945-1947) and in 1947. Professor V. S. Sundaralingam, the Chief torch bearer of the Botany Department became its Head and brought many outstanding changes.
The Department was elevated to a Post Graduate Department in the year 1967. after getting affiliation from the University of Madras. Recognition of the Department as a research centre by the University of Madras was granted in 1970 and for M.Phil in 1980. Professor V. S. Sundaralingam had a futuristic vision, hence he saw to that different fields of Plant Sciences were specialised by students under the guideship of the then professors, namely, Prof. A. Balasubramanian in Plant Anatomy, Prof. B Subramanian who worked on Brown and Red Algae, Prof. S. Bharathan in Charales, Prof. O. S. Vivekanandan in Cytogenetics. At this juncture, Prof. K. N. Rao, after serving for about twelve years, left the Department in 1962. Prof. K. K. Lakshmanan who joined the department in 1967, developed Tissue Culture. Adding further glory to the Botany Department, Dr. S. Narayanaswamy, former Director, Bio Laboratory Organic Division, Babha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, Fellow of CSIR, INAS. along with world renowned Algologists, Prof. V. Krishnamurthy, former Principal, Government Arts and Science College Trichy, also Director. Krishnamurthy Institute of Algology and Prof. T. V. Desikachary served in this Department as Emeritus Professors and played a key role in establishing Research activities in Tissue Culture and Algology respectively. Prof. V. S. Sundaralingam had planned meticulously to have separate culture laboratories for Tissue Culture and Algology. These are the two laboratories that are being used till date by several generations of students from our Department and both full time and part time students of other colleges to get their M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees.
Due to the tireless efforts of the pioneers and stalwarts of the Botany Department, it lead to the blossoming of Pachaiyappa Plant Science Research Forum (PPSRF) in the year 1989, under the leadership of the Head of the Botany Department, Professor A. Balasubramanian, the founder and Prof. O. S. Vivekanandan, Co-founder of PPSRF PPSRF decided to conduct Symposia, Seminars and Conferences periodically for the benefit of all Plant Science Faculties, Researchers and Students.
The Department inaugurated PPSRF on fith of December 1989 during the tenure of Prof. A. Balasubramanian as Head, Prof. O. S. Vivekanandan as Secretary of PPSRF and by the support of all faculty members. Prof. A. N. Ananthakrishnan, Director FRS inaugurated and Dr. A. Gnanam, Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras, released the first issue of PPSRF News Letter.
The Botany Department which has had a long and steady journey since its inception, has reached this height of accolade due to the sincere involvement and selfless dedication by the retired professors, like Prof. T. S. Partha, Dr. Padmini Devi Krishnan, Prof. M. P. Murugesan, Prof. B. Subramanian, Prof. O. S. Vivekanandan, Prof. S. Bharathan, Prof. A. V. Govindaraj, Prof. Nirmala Sambandam, Prof. D. Balasubramania Reddy, Prof. T. S. Shanmugam, Prof. B. Kasturi Bai. Prof. C. R. Bojan and Prof. G. Kathiresan.
The Botany Department has strived hard to maintain and sustain high standards in teaching as well as in research. The Department has to its credit of having produced 217 M.Phil. Scholars and 47 Ph.D Scholars till date. Currently 6 M.Phil. and 17 Ph.D. scholars are pursuing their research. In addition to the above credentials, nearly 300 research articles have been published in reputed International and National Journals. The Department of Botany thank the Management for allotting Room No.79 in the Science Block exclusively for research purposes for the Ph.D. Scholars.
