Brief History of Department:

The Department of Studies in Zoology was established in the year 1960 under the stewardship of late Prof. M. R. Rajashekarasetty along with late Prof. B.N. Bole Gowda and late Prof. Appaswamy Rao.  Prof. Rajashekarasetty was the chief architect of all the developmental activities of the department. Later, Prof. H. A. Ranganath and all other teachers who have served in this department have contributed immensely in teaching and research, made a steady progress in the overall growth of this department for the past five decades. At present there are four permanent faculty members working as Professors along with three technical staff and 17 non-teaching personnel in the department. Around 19 research scholars, 107 M.Sc., Zoology students are perusing their higher education in this Department.

The Department of Studies in Zoology has gained international status and the alumni of the department have spread across the world.  Many of them have occupied the top most academic and administrative positions in the state and the country.  Initially the research in the department was mainly focused on two major thrust areas namely: Cytogenetics and Reproductive Biology. Later, these thrust areas branched out to cover on diverse array of research fields like Human Genetics, Development Genetics, Behavioral Genetics, Genomics, Vector Biology, Stress Biology, Endocrinology, Cancer Biology, Toxicology, Chronobiology, Microbial Ecology, Applied Zoology, Apidology and Wildlife Biology.  Now, we have state of art work being carried out in all these off shoots.  Presently, research work is carried out on various fields. Moreover, department of zoology is a recipient of many grants from the prestigious funding agencies. The research in the department was supported by various funding agencies such as DST, DBT, BRNS, CSIR, ICMR and the infrastructure facilities have been provided under DST-FIST, UGC-SAP I, II & III phases and COSIST grants.  There are two facilities namely: Drosophila Stock Center – National Facility functioning as a Drosophila Germplasm Resource Centre and hands on Training Centre to serve Universities and Research Institutes across the Country. Moreover, Central Animal Facility is working day and night to cater the need of animal stocks for research and teaching to all the Life Science Departments of University of Mysore. Recently, the UGC, New Delhi has recognized the Zoology Department as ‘Center for Advanced Studies’ (CAS).