Bethune College, Kolkata : Chemistry Department

Bethune College : Chemistry Department

Course Details

Three year Honours Degree Course (Calcutta University).
U.G. General Course for students with Honours in other Science subjects, viz., Physics, Mathematics, Botany and Zoology.

History of the Department

The history of Chemistry Department dates back to 1923 when the college was first affiliated to Intermediate Science with only one teacher named Sri Santosh Kumar Banerjee. Prof. Ashima Chatterjee, an eminent scientist was a student of I.Sc. course of this college. Prof. Debi Chakroborty, Emeritus Professor (M.Sc., P.R.S., D. Phil (Oxford) C. Chem, FRIC (London)) took charge of the department in the year 1945. In addition to normal teaching in Chemistry, there was a research laboratory attached to the department where PG research work was carried on under her guidance. Some students like Prof. Roma Sur, Dr. Anjali Ghosh got their doctorate degrees from this laboratory. The college was affiliated to B.Sc. pass course in 1958 and in 1961 the department began the Honours course in Chemistry with four staff members, which was increased to fourteen in 1975. During the last five decades many teachers retired and some new teachers joined either by transfer or as fresh appointment. Department of Chemistry passed fifty four successful years which shaped so many young minds in the field of chemistry. The alumni from this department have proved themselves in different academic and non academic fields.

Research and Extension Activities

Dr. Srirupa Banerjee runs a Fast Track DST Project for Young Scientist, entitled "Visible light photoredox catalysis: Towards an environment friendly approach to organic synthesis".

Seminars held

Sl. No.	Funding agency	Date	Seminar/ Conferences/ Workshops	speakers
1	UGC-CPE	10th Dec, 2010	One-Day Seminar to Commemorate 150th Birth Anniversary of A.P.C. Ray	1. Prof. Syamal Chakraborty, Dept. of Chemistry, CU 2. Prof. R. N. Majumder, Dept. of Chemical Technology, CU
2	UGC	15th & 16th Dec, 2011	UGC-Sponsored National Seminar on "Journey of An Atom through 100 Years" to celebrate IYC	1. Dr. Pradipta Bandyopadhyay, Associate Professor, JNU, New Delhi 2. Dr. Manojit Pal, Head, Department of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry, Institute of Life Sciences, Gachibowli, Hyderabad 3. Dr. Abhisek Dey, Assistant Professor, IACS, Jadavpur, Kolkata4. Professor Susanta Lahiri, SINP, Kolkata 4. Prof. Susanta Lahiri, SINP, Kolkata
3	UGC-CPE	Sep., 2013	Invited Talk on "Stereochemistry: An Overview" and on "Bonding in Boranes" in the Departmental Seminar	1. Prof. Subrata Sengupta 2. Dr. Sanchita Goswami
4	UGC-CPE	28th January, 2016	Lecture on �Learning Chemistry in the Computer age� in the Departmental Seminar	Prof. Uday Maitra, IISC, Bangalore
5	Co-sponsored by RSC	Sep. 9, 2016	One-Day National Seminar on "Recent Advances in Life Science in the Light of Chemistry"	1. Dr. Jyotirmayee Dash, Associate Professor, Department of Organic Chemistry, IACS, Jadavpur 2. Dr. Sagar Pal, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Chemistry, ISM Dhanbad (IIT), Jharkhand 3. Dr. Ambika C. Banerjee, Former Corporate Advisor - R & D, East India Pharmaceuticals Works Ltd.

Infrastructure

Smart class room with ICT facility
LCD projector
Laptop
Desktop
Spectrophotometer UV-Vis
pH-meter
Conductivity meter
Polarimeter
Potentiometer
Colorimeter
Digital Balance (High Precision)
Distillation unit

There are a well-maintained Seminar Library of 265 text and reference books as well as a Book Bank having 103 books, from both of which students borrow books regularly.

Departmental Prizes/Scholarships

Santosh memorial Medal (Highest marks in Chemistry Honours in the B.Sc. Examination from this college)
Puspa Das and Dipali Das Memorial Silver Medal (Highest marks in Chemistry Honours Practical in the B.Sc. Examination from this college)
Radharani Bhattacharya Memorial Silver Medal (Highest Proficiency in Chemistry Honours in the B.Sc. Examination from this college)
Special Staff Prize (Students securing first class in the B.Sc. Honours Final Examination from this college)
Shibnarayan Chakraborty Memorial Prize (Highest Proficiency in Chemistry Honours in the B.Sc. Examination from this college)
Kamalabala Mukherjee Memorial Scholarship (award for standing 1st in Chemistry Honours in the B.Sc. Examination from this college)
Netaji Prize (awarded for Highest Proficiency in Chemistry Honours in the B.Sc. Examination from this college)

Students Achievements :

Debarati Das and Sreemoyee Chakraborty secured the First and the Second ranks respectively in the B.Sc. Part-III Final Examination, 2016.
Accompanied by a teacher Dr. Supriti Paul, students of the department Sucheta Biswas & Debleena Ghosh (2nd year) Sampita Paul & Rittwika Pan (1st year) participated in XXX Training Programme on Science on 11.02.17 at Bose Institute, Kolkata jointly organized Indian Science News Association & Vigyan Prasar, DST,Govt. Of India, New Delhi.
Ritobrata De & Rittwika Pan of UG II won the First Prize in the Inter-College Debate organized by Bethune College commemorating the 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Sister Nivedita.
Debarati Das (2016 pass out) received Principal�s Award for achieving the highest proficiency among all the B.Sc. honours students from Bethune College in the CU Part-III Exam, 2016.
Ritama Kar (3rd Year) was awarded the Nalini Das Award for best all round performance by Part II student (B.A & B.Sc).
Ritobrata De (2nd Year) received Rabindra Satobarshiki Puroskar in 2016.
Debleena Ghosh, Ritobrata De and Priya Bhandari (all from 2nd Year) participated in the 21st All India Chemiquiz organized by Department of Chemistry, Presidency University on 18th April, 2017 and secured the second position in the said quiz competition.

Students of first and second year actively participated in various Co-Curricular and Extra-Curricular Activities held within the campus. Following are the individual achievements by them.

INTRA-2016

Sl. No.	Name	Year	Event	Position
1	Bortika Sanyal	1st	Eastern Vocal	3rd
2	Rittwika Pan	1st	Western Vocal	2nd
3	Sanandita Hazra	2nd	Eastern Dance	3rd
4	Annesha Chattterjee & Annesha Datta	2nd	Antakshari	1st
5	Gargi Day & Debleena Ghosh	2nd	Antakshari	3rd
6	Swagata Roy	2nd	Recitation	3rd
7	Ritobrata De & Sucheta Biswas	2nd	Quiz	2nd
8	Ritobrata De & Sucheta Biswas	2nd	Treasure Hunt	1st
9	Ritobrata De	2nd	Bengali Creative Writing	1st
10	Ritobrata De	2nd	Painting	1st
11	Swagata Roy	2nd	Debate	1st

College Fest AALAP - 2016

Sl. No.	Name	Year	Event	Position
1	Rohi Naushin	1st	Mehendi	3rd
2	Ritobrata De	1st	Extempore	3rd

Annual Sports-2016

Sl. No.	Name	Year	Event	Position
1	Ankita Sinha	1st	Shot Put	3rd
	Ankita Sinha	1st	Long Jump	3rd
2	Sucheta Biswas	2nd	100mt Run	2nd

Apart from taking part in different in-house events, our students also participated enthusiastically in various cultural as well as sports activities outside the campus. Following is the list of such achievements worth mentioning.

INTER COLLEGE COMPETITION-2016

Sl. No.	Name (Students of first year)	Year	Event	Position
1	Ankita Sinha	1st	Badminton (Single) Scottish Church College Fest	2nd
2	Ritobrata De	1st	Creative Writing (Inter College Creative Writing Competition by Writers' Block "REFULGENCE"	2nd
3	Ritobrata De & Rittwika Pan	2nd	Debate (Celebration of Sister Nivedita�s 150th Birth Anniversary) Against the motion & For the motion	1st Both 1st
4	Sayantika Bhakta, Srijita Basu & Tiyasha Mondal	3rd	Poster Competition of undergraduate level (Topic : Hydrogen Bond) in the One Day National Seminar held in Chemistry Department organised on 09.9.2016	1st
5	Rittwika Pan, Puja Pal and Bortika Sanyal	1st	Quiz competition held in Cultvision -17 organised by Research Scholars Association (IACS) on 24th-25th March, 2017	3rd
6	Rittwika Pan	1st	Creative writing (Topic: Cinema) held in Cultvision - 17 organised by Research Scholars Association (IACS) on 24th-25th March, 2017	1st

1st Year students Rittiwika Pan, Sreshtha Ganguly & Bartika Sanyal have performed as Bethune Choir Member in various cultural events held during 2016-17.
An excursion was organised for departmental teachers, staff and students at Garh Mirzapur, Howrah on 14th January, 2017.
Soumi Ghosh, Plabani Manna, Sanchaita Paul and Srijita Basu of 3rd year were among the recipients of INSPIRE Scholarship in 2016.
Shreyasree Saha and Sampreeti Roy, students from the 2017 pass out batch, have been recruited by the Tata Consultancy Services through our campus recruitment programme.

Department News

Notices :

Results :

University Results - Part- III Honours

Year of Passing	No. of Students Appeared	1st Class	Highest Marks (%)
2017	34	17	74.5%
2016	35	23	86.75%
2015	27	19	78.9%
2014	24	19	79%
2013	32	23	77.8%

Debarati Das secured 88% in Part-II Honours Examination, 2015 and became Calcutta University topper. Soumi Kolay secured the 2nd position in Calcutta University scoring 81% marks in Part-I Honours Examination, 2015.

Department of Chemistry