School of Marine Sciences, CUSAT
About the School
School of Marine Sciences at Lakeside Campus of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), a unique institution of its kind in the country where interdisciplinary Masters and Ph.D. programs are offered in all branches of Marine Sciences. It established in the year1938 as Department of Marine Biology and Fisheries under the erstwhile Travancore University to cater Marine Science education and research at national and levels. The school is poised for development into an international nodal centre to serve the countries of this region in imparting education, training and research facilities in basics and applied aspects of Ocean Sciences and Technology. The School consists of five departments in each discipline of marine science such as Atmospheric Sciences, Chemical Oceanography, Physical Oceanography, Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, Marine Geology & Geophysics and two centres namely Inter University Centre for the Development of Marine Biotechnology (IUCDMB) and CUSAT-NCPOR Centre for Polar Sciences (CNCPS).
History & Departments
The history of School of Marine Sciences began with the establishment of Department of Marine Biology and Fisheries under Travancore University in the year 1938 to cater the marine science education and research. As part of further development, an Oceanography laboratory was established in 1956 at Naval Base, Cochin. The education program began with a two-year M. Sc. course in Marine Biology and Oceanography in 1958. This laboratory had a new building in Ernakulam city by the year 1962 with a new name "Department of Marine Biology and Oceanography". In 1971, University of Cochin was established and the School was made under the university. The school witnessed two spin-offs, School of Industrial Fisheries in 1976 and School of Environmental Studies in 1980. The department was renamed as "School of Marine Sciences" in 1983. By the year 1995, the school was restructured with five departments Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Department of Chemical Oceanography, Department of Physical Oceanography, Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry and Department of Marine Geology & Geophysics. The School is presently running six M. Sc., two M.Tech. and Ph.D. programs.
Thrust Areas of Research
The thrust area include marine biodiversity, marine ecology, fishery biology, marine microbiology, biology of polar ecosystems, microbial pollution, modeling biogeochemical cycles, harmful algae, marine benthos, captive broodstock development and seed production techniques of fin and shellfishes, wetland studies, community ecology, ecotoxicology, marine genomics, climate change, sealevel variation, estuarine modeling, coastal ocean dynamics, marine coastal zone management, marine sediments and placer deposits, micropaleontology & paleoclimate, geophysical prospecting, polar sciences, chemical cycles, groundwater quality, estuarine chemo-system, biogeochemistry, marine organic sulphur compounds, strosphere-troposphere interactions, monsoon, atmospheric boundary layer, ozone variability, ocean-atmospheric modeling, numerical weather forecasting, air pollution and more.