Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur

The University of Gorakhpur is a teaching and residential-cum-affiliating University. It is situated at a distance of about 2 kilometers form the downtown to the east and almost walking distance from railway station to the south. Although the idea of residential University at Gorakhpur was first mooted by Dr. C.J. Chako, the then Principal of St. Andrews College, then under Agra University, who initiated post-graduate and undergraduate science teaching in his college, the idea got crystallized and took concrete shape by the untiring efforts of Late Pt. S.N.M. Tripathi. The proposal was accepted in principle by the first Chief Minister of U.P., Late Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant, but it was only in 1965 that the University came into existence by an act passed by the U.P. Legislature. It actually started functioning since September 1, 1957, when the faculties of Arts, Commerce, Law and Education were started. In the following year, 1958, the faculty of science came into being. Faculties of Engineering, Medicine and Agriculture came into existence in later years. Late Mahant Digvijay Nath also made valuable contribution in the formation of the University. The Madan Mohan Malviya Engineering College. At one stage the federal jurisdiction of the University was spread over colleges in Gorakhpur and the adjoining erstwhile twelve districts with about 125 affiliated colleges. In 1973, when the Gorakhpur University Act was replaced by uniform piece of legislation called the U.P. Universities Act, about two dozed colleges located in five districts were transferred to the newly created Avadh University with headquarters at Faizabad. The jurisdiction of the Gorakhpur University was drastically curtailed further in its headquarters at Jaunpur. At present, with the establishment of new colleges and the creation of new districts, there are 123 colleges located in five districts of Gorakhpur Division. In the beginning the University had its own teething troubles. But due to the zeal, untiring efforts and foresight of its founding fathers and the then faculty members, it has come of age having completed more than forty years of a most meaningful existence. It now has neat and attractive campus spread over an area of about 300 acres with well-planned teaching and residential campuses. In the beginning the University was housed in two buildings the Pant Block (inaugurated by late Pt. Pant) and the Majithia Block (named after Sir Surendra Singh Majithia, who made a significant donation to the building through his family trust). Several other buildings came up during the following decades : they include the Central Library, the Arts Block, the Administrative Block, the Law Faculty, a Student's Union building, a Gymnasium hall, a Health Centre, a Computer Centre and Research Buildings for Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany. Besides, there are separated Buildings for Commerce and Education Faculties and also for Home, Science, Geography, Psychology, Sociology, Hindi, Ancient History, Fine Arts and Music, Political Science and Adult Education. A huge building comprising several big rooms besides and imposing auditorium, referred to as Deeksha Bhavan, presently houses the separate girls' wing for the undergraduate classes along with its use as an examination centre. Two separate building housing a branch of Allahabad Bank and a sub-Post Office are also part of the University. Samajiki Manviki Bhawan - was built about seven years ago. Besides the general maintenance and repair work, and the general beautification of the campus on a large scale, some hectic construction activities are also currently going on in the University. Buildings of Department of Business Management and of Biotechnology have been constructed. Additional lecture halls have been added in the Arts Faculty Building. In the residential zone, we have more than 125 quarters for teachers and officials of the University and about the same number of the non-teaching staff. There are several hostels - four boys and one complex with three wings for the girls' - which have facilities of reading-cum-TV room, games, etc. The students living in the city are attached to the Delegacy which looks after their interests and provides facilities to them in extra-curricular activities. The academic culture of the University evolved out the cross fertilization of diverse traditions of teaching and research. The seniors who gave a start to the institution came from varying University backgrounds. What has thus been delivered to us is a most liberal tradition of academic pursuit, a tradition rich in content and intellectual stimulating. True to our motto, we have always believed in the free quest of knowledge and have consistently refused to live under anything like an inbred orthodoxy. Among the illustrious faculty members who distinguished themselves in their own fields were elevated as Vice Chancellor and served more than once are. * Faculty of Arts * Faculty of Science * Faculty of Commerce * Faculty of Education * Faculty of Law * Faculty of Agriculture In the beginning research facilities in the field of molecular spectroscopy and the luminescence were developed and a number beginning in the field of semiconductor devices, polymer studies and theoretical studies in the field of exact solutions of Einstein field equations were also carried out. With growing numbers of teaching staff, studies in the field of crystal structure using X-ray techniques, investigations in the field of liquid crystals and biomolecules, experimental studies in solar physics and categorization of stars, studies of stellar matter particularly black holes and galactic clusters were undertaken. A strong group in the field of supersonic conductors, dielectric polarization, absorption and dispersion studies and rare earth oxides were also developed in the mid seventies. Studies in the field of thin-film solar energy conversion devices, Organic semiconductors and currently multilayer and nanostructure materials and devices have been developed. A group in Biophysics is studying transcription in DNA molecules and junction of these molecules. This group is also carrying out conformal mapping of biomolecules using X-ray techniques and NMR investigations. Another group in the field of Particle Physics is also active and is engaged in collaborative programme with CERN, Germany. Most of the faculty members after having their training in the country have worked in renowned research laboratories and centres of theoretical studies abroad. There are many Humboldt and DAAD fellows, post doctoral fellows is SIDA, Sweden and ICTP, Italy and others have either worked under academic exchange programmes or invitation programmes. Department Of Mathematics & Statistics At present research is being done in the field of Theory of Relativity, Differential Geometry, Fluid Dynamics, Special Functions, Summability Theory, Functional Analysis, Differentiable Manifolds, Number Theory, and Graph Theory and in Statistics - Bayesian inference, Life Testing, Reliability Theory Demography etc. The Department of Mathematics and Statistics has made great strides. In the last few years the number of students from undergraduate to research level has considerably increased. The Department of Chemistry, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, since its inception, has been recognized at the National and International level for its quality teaching & research. It was established in 1958 with Late Prof. S.C. Tripathi as its founder member and Prof. Mehrotra (April 1958 to July 1962) as its first Head of the department. Prof. K.C. Joshi was Reader, Head of the department for a short period (August, 1962 - Sept. 1962) after which Prof. R. P. Rastogi (Oct. 1962 to April 1985) took over the leadership of the department. In subsequent years, the department got the leadership of Late Prof. S.C. Tripathi (April, 1985 to Feb. 1987), Prof. S. Giri (Feb.,1987 to March 1996), Prof. R.R. Yadav (March 1996 to Jan. 1998 ), Prof. Kehar Singh (Jan. 1998 to Sept. 1998), Prof. J. Nath, (Sept. 1998 to March, 1999), Prof. B.L. Dubey (March 1999 to April, 1999), Prof. N. B. Singh (April 1999 to July 2003) and Prof. M. L. Srivastava who is providing leadership to the department at present.