Vivekananda College

The word Chemistry comes from the word alchemy, an earlier set of practices that involves elements of chemistry, metallurgy, philosophy, astrology, astronomy, mysticism and medicine. Chemistry is a molecular science and also Chemistry uses the scientific method to advance its knowledge. Traditional chemistry starts with the study of atoms, molecules, substances, metals, crystals and other aggregates of matter. Interactions between atoms and other various forms of energy gives rise to various reactions like, photochemical reaction, sonochemical reactions, nuclear reactions and chemical reactions in the nano scale apart from basic reactions like oxidation-reduction reactions, changes in phases of matter, and separation of mixtures. Chemistry is sometimes called "the central science" because it bridges other natural sciences like physics, geology and biology with each other. There are fundamentally three specialized areas of study in chemistry - physical chemistry, organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry though research in chemical sciences encompasses all the areas.

History:

The Department of Chemistry is one of oldest science department which started its journey along with the establishment of our college (1950). Dr. Sushil Kumar Roy was the founder Principal and Secretary (1950-1972). In this context, it is to be mentioned that Dr. S.K. Roy’s academic background was Chemistry. Because of the increasing number students and also due to Dr. Roy’s honest and sincere rest effort, fully fledged Chemistry honours course was started in 1959 in the newly and spacious 6.17 acres’ land of Thakurpukur area (present campus). Dr. Debesh Mukuherjee was the first Head of the department of Chemistry. Since then, our department have produced a large number of meritorious students and majority of them are very well placed in national level academic and as well as in research based institutions, e.g;

Dr. Kamalakshya Nag was one of the students in the first batches of Chemistry Honours in 1961. He is also a renowned inorganic research scientist in IACS, Jadavpur, Kolkata and presently an emeritus professor in IACS.
Dr. Amalendu Hazra (retired professor) was also the student of the 2nd passed out batch of the Chemistry Honours (1962) and he is also a popular teacher in inorganic chemistry (1965-2002).
Dr. Suman De Sarkar (2006 - in Chemistry honours), joined as an Assistant Professor in Chemistry in the year 2016 at IISER, Kolkata after completing his post-doctoral work from Germany.
Dr. Monalisa Pal (pass out 2010) joined as an Assistant Professor in Chemistry in the year 2020 at Banaras Hindu University, Uttarpradesh after completing her post-doctoral work from Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea.
Besides, Sharmistha Paul, Manish Nag, Soumik Sarkar, Samarpita Das, Reetambhara Dutta, Angira Roy, Debayan Chakraborty, Esma Khatun and many more who are currently doing doctoral/post-doctoral work in different renowned research institute in the Country and abroad.
The present form of the department involves a lot of hard work and selfless love for the department from ex teachers, students, college authorities, present teachers and teaching supported staffs. Department of Chemistry is grateful to all those personalities because of which the modified and an upgraded platform of the department have been achieved.