Department News

In the wildlife week, the Department of Zoology organized an educational trip on 7^th October 2023, for students to Nahargarh Biological Park, Kukas and enriched their knowledge about faunal as well as floral diversity. The visit to the park was an enlightening effort to make the students learn in the lap of Mother Nature. The students of BSc and MSc were able to visualize different fauna and their behavioural interactions. The park is an abode for tiger, lions, leopards, wolves, fox, jackals, hyenas, black bear, spotted deer, black buck, sambhar deer, Indian gazelle, hog deer, emu, alligators, crocodiles, porcupines, wild boar, langurs and a cascade of butterflies which included plain tiger, lemon pansy, common rose, lime, blue pansy, peacock pansy, common jejebel, white orange tip, pioneer, oriental glass jewel, common yellow, indian palm bob and rounded pierrot. The park also contained numerous species of birds which included rufoustreepie, peacock, kingfisher, tailor bird, babbler, bee eaters, indian roller, parakeet, pigeon, laughing dove, red wattled lapwing, drongo, robin, bulbul, and humming bird etc. The students were also enlightened by the NGO-RAKSHA about the importance of venomous and non-venomous snakes.  The trip was an effort to make students aware about wildlife rehabilitation and its protection. Students understood the importance of forest conservation and the role of community in preserving them.

DATE OF VISIT- 27 July 2023

VISITORS- Prof. Priyanka Mathur, Dr. Anju Sharma, Students pursuing Ph.D., Masters and B Sc Honors in Zoology

An Educational visit to the 'Entrepreneurship and Career Hub - Incubation Center' at Rajasthan University was organized by the Department of Zoology, IIS (deemed to be University) on 27 July 2023. A total of 23 students pursuing Masters, Honors, and Ph.D. courses were privileged to gain knowledge from such exposure. The students were escorted by Prof. Priyanka Mathur and Dr. Anju Sharma.

Professor P.J. John, Co-ordinator of ECH-Incubation Centre, guided the students about start-ups and the process of building an idea into a successful career. He briefed them about the overarching vision and objectives of the incubation center, how it helps innovative ideas grow into profitable business models, and the kind of mentorship and guidance it provides to student entrepreneurs. The funding schemes provided by the government and facilitated by the university, such as UNITE and SPICE, were explained to students, as well as light was shed on the important topic of ‘Women Entrepreneurship’.

Faculty members of the center familiarized students with various labs, such as the Bio lab, plant tissue culture lab, setup lab, microbiology lab, and core lab. Highly advanced machinery with great accuracy, such as a spectrophotometer used to measure the intensity of light (number of photons), and a Vacuum rotary evaporator used to remove solvents from samples like plant extracts, was demonstrated.

In addition to that, equipment like High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, Thermal Cycler,RT-PCR,COD digester, Gas chromatography, Vacuum mixer homogenizer, and Plant growth chamber were also introduced. The lab was equipped with advanced tools for cellular-level studies, including a digital cell counter, flow cytometer, and light microscope with 4k resolution.

The center was also equipped with a well-furnished office area to fulfill the basic workspace needs of the entrepreneurs. A unique feature was the scale-up lab, where researchers/inventors can work on accomplishing pilot projects.

Students were encouraged to pursue careers as entrepreneurs by highlighting various successful startups initiated by students at the university level, such as recycling of E-waste and reselling the chemicals to the industry, and the development of an antibacterial clothing line using block printing, etc.

This visit provided the students with immense knowledge about various high-tech research machines, their applications, methods of sample analysis, and result prediction, etc. The department also assured students of the opportunity to conduct their research work in these labs in the future. In conclusion, this successful educational exposure visit achieved its objective of providing new and beneficial learning experiences.

Department of Zoology organized an Orientation programme for B.Sc. (P) and B.Sc. (H) Semester I students on 9^th  August, 2023.

The students and all staff members gathered at D-301 (1:45 pm). Head (Department of Zoology) Dr. Lata Shahani first welcomed all the students and then introduced all the faculty members of the department.

A small PPT presentation covering the time-table, credit-template, scheme of examination, paper titles, do’s and dont’s achievers of department was shown to the students.

Students actively participated in the activities organized by B.Sc. (H) Semester V students. A small quiz containing questions related to Zoology as well as general questions were asked. Dumb shared and a song was also sung by Prachi (B.Sc. (H) Semester V) student.

The students of semester I then sung two group songs and all students at the end filled the feedback form circulated to them.