The University Grants Commission has selected the Department of Physics at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to be developed as a “network centre of physics”.

The idea is to have the department help other universities and institutions carry out good quality research in physics and to this end, the UGC has provided a financial assistance for Rs 5.1 crore to the department.

“The BHU received a letter in this regard from UGC last week and Rs 5.1 crore has been released,” said Professor PC Mishra, head of the Physics Department.

As a network centre, the BHU will do collaborative research with other universities and institutes whose physics departments are comparatively weaker in research and teaching activities.

“Research scholars and students of those universities will be invited to work in our laboratories free of cost,” said Professor Mishra.

The department will also organise lectures, symposiums and workshops for the universities on important topics of physics every week. These lectures will be delivered by eminent scientists and faculties of various other universities and research centres.

The department has already started listing the universities and research centres. Prominent among these are the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata; Hyderabad University; SN Bose National Centre of Basic Sciences, Kolkata; Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore; and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

An official of the UGC said the Physics Department of BHU is well equipped with advanced technologies for research and also has a skilled faculty. That was why it has been made a network centre.

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