The department of Pharmaceutical Technology was set up in 1963 and is a part and parcel of Jadavpur University which had its root published in 1906. The department enjoys national and international recognition both in teaching and research. The late Professor M L Schroff was the first head of the Department and Late Prof. Durlav Krishna Roy became his immediate successor.
Among many other finest pharmacy professors of JU, ML Schroff was one of them. He headed the department from July 1964 to December 1967. His journey towards profession from education is quite interesting and worthy to be discussed. Father of Indian Pharmacy Education, Mahadev Lal Schroff was born on 6th March 1902 in Bihar. His name was renowned for his immense contribution to pharmacy education. Surprisingly though his education and early profession were entirely different from a pharmacy, he contributed both to the education and the industrial sector. He had his bachelor degree from Cornell University and did MS in chemistry & microbiology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the year of 1927. Before this, he joined Banaras Hindu University (BHU) for his college education in 1920 after completion of schooling in Bhagalpur. At that time, he was seeking further educational opportunities in a foreign country. He tried his luck in China, Japan and finally put his foothold in America. After his education in the USA, he came back and worked in different sectors in India and a few of them were Birla Brothers Ltd, BHU & Jadavpur University. During his tenure in BHU, he introduced pharm chemistry; pharmacognosy etc. in the BSC course and later on he started 3 years B Pharmacy course & 2 years M Pharmacy. In 1946, he acted as president of Bengal Pharmaceutical Association, 1st vice president of PCI in 1949 and president of PCI in 1954. Another famous professor of the Jadavpur University Pharmaceutical Technology Department is Prof. Durlav Kumar Roy. During his tenure at Jadavpur University from August 1968 to June 1981 was remarkable. Prof. DK Roy and his group have influenced the arena of research a lot. It is quite obvious that breakthrough improvements in pharmacy are happening due to huge contributions by professionals both in academia and industry. In Jadavpur University, research is being given the same priority as teaching for ages. DK Roy’s works on antiviral-antibiotic complex, antitumor activity from As per gillus Niger drew the attention of the scientific community. Among his collaboration with different institutes, research works with CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology was noteworthy. His invented antibiotic named ‘JAWARINE’ proved its efficacy against several viruses including Leukaemia. He was from Dashghara, Hooghly (W. B.) and graduated from BHU in 1936 in pharmaceutics. His postgraduate degree was from Calcutta University in Applied Chemistry in the year of 1939. His further education was pursued from the U.S.A. He was awarded a Watmull Foundation Travel grant to work with famous researchers such as Dr. Kolachov and Prof. Underkofler. After returning to India, he worked in the Indian Institute of Experimental Medicine, Calcutta (presently known as the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology). He served Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani (Rajasthan) as professor and head of the Department of Pharmaceutics for 2 years. He worked back again to IICB for 12 years (1956-1968) and later on in Jadavpur University; He headed the department from 1968 to 1977. Later on, he served as a professor till 1981. He was associated with ICMR, Biochemical Society of Calcutta, Indian Pharmaceutical Congress, West Bengal Pharmacy Council, All India Council of Technical Education and many more. His research projects were funded by CSIR, ICMR and UGC and he was awarded P. C. Roy Gold Medal in 1981 and Prof. A. C. Roy Commemoration in 1985. He was elected as a fellow of Institutions of Chemist of India and Royal Society of Chemistry (London). His death on November 25, 1986, is deeply mourned by the pharmacy professional still.

Another eminent professor of Pharmaceutical Technology of Jadavpur University was Dr. Anupam Sengupta. He was born on 1st March 1928 in undivided Bengal. He worked first in Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani, Rajasthan from 1950 to 1958 in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Division. From 1958 to 1960, he served the Development Council, Ministry of Petrochemicals, Govt. of India and in 1960 he joined the Department of Pharmaceutics, Benaras Hindu University, U. P. He pursued his research on Oil Technology and Lipid Chemistry from Calcutta University and earned his D. Phil degree in 1963. Our Department receive him in 1965 as a reader in pharmaceutical chemistry and his tenure till August 1980 contributed a lot for further improvement of the Pharmacy department. He headed the department in 1980 but his premature demise on 22nd August 1980 stopped his glorious journey. During this short era of time, he contributed more than 50 original scientific research works and all were published in the journal of international repute. He guided few PhD students and many postgraduate students who are presently working in the academic sector or industry. He was an active member of the Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India and his expertise was sought by Bengal Chemical & Pharmaceutical Works of W. B.; B.I.T Mesra, Ranchi; and also by University Grants Commission, Govt. of India for drafting pharmacy curriculum. Instead of his short span of life, he enriched and empowered the pharmacy department of JU. Since its functioning from 1963, it is offering courses on Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, pharmaceutics, Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy, Microbiology, Biochemistry and PharmaceuticalEngineering. Faculties from different expertise joined the institute since then and glorified the Pharmaceutical Technology Department of JU. They all are trusted lieutenants of Prof. M. L. Schroff putting Indian pharmacy education on a very robust foundation.

Professor D. K. Ganguly, Prof. B. K. Gupta, Prof. Atin Chakraborty were from the pharmacology, pharmaceutics and microbiology departments respectively. Prof. D. K. Ganguly stayed in the department for a very short span from December, 1965 to August 1969. During this time, Prof. Ganguly authored in many reputed journals from Springer, Elsevier and many more. Professor B. K. Gupta served the department in JU from February 1964 to April 1999. He also acted as former President of West Bengal Pharmacy Council, Executive Member of Pharmacy Council of India, New Delhi and Prof. Gupta was also involved with other pharmacy institutes. Pharmaceutical Technology Department of Jadavpur University got another eminent faculty, Prof. Amarnath Bhaduri. He ornamented this department from July 1966 to January 1986. He was an Indian molecular enzymologist and chemical biologist. His most mentioned work was UDP-glucose 4-epimerase and work on Leishmania Donovan, the protozoal pathogen for Kala-azar. He also acted as director of IICB and was selected as a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Amarnath Bhaduri received the most prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology which was sponsored by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1979. He was born on 12th November 1935 in Kolkata and pursued his college studies at Presidency College and Calcutta University. He did his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and after returning to India, he joined the pharmacy department of JU. He worked here still he moved to IICB as a director. When he died on 5th June 2003 in Kolkata, he was serving as an honorary professor at JadavpurUniversity. Other eminent faculties from the pharmacy department were Prof. S. K. Datta, Prof. P. K. Lala, Prof. (Mrs.) M. Pal, Prof. A. U. De, Prof. C Sengupta, Prof. A. N. Chakrabarty, Prof. A. Nandy, Prof. B. P. Saha, Prof. S. K. Ghosal, Prof. M Gupta, Prof. S. K. Mondal, Prof. (Mrs.) S Ghoshdastidar, Prof. S. C. Lahiri, Prof. I. C. Bhattacharya, Prof. A. K. Nag Chowdhury, Prof. S. P. Pal, Prof. A. Nanda, Prof. S. K. Basu, Prof. U. K. Mazumdar, Prof. J. K. Gupta, Prof. A. k. Bandopadhyay, Prof. B. Sa, Prof. M. Chatterjee, Prof. T. K. Pal, Prof. T. K. Chatterjee and Prof. T. Sen.

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