About
About Patiala
At an altitude of 250m (30.32 N 76.40 E), Patiala, the royal city of Punjab, is built around Qila Mubarak fort (the fortunate castle). The castle was constructed by the chieftain 'Baba Ala Singh', who founded the royal dynasty of the Patiala State in 1763. The city is famous for its traditional Patiala Shahi turban (a type of headgear), paranda (a tasselled tag for braiding hair), patiala salwar (a type of female trousers), jutti (a type of footwear), and Patiala peg (a measure of liquor).
The city is well connected to other major cities of India via road as well as by air. The nearest airports are Mohali International Airport (45Km) and Indira Gandhi International Airport (250Km). By car, it takes about 3 hours 40 minutes to reach Patiala from New Delhi. By train, the travelling time between New Delhi and Patiala is approximately 5 hours.
The climate of Patiala city is sub-tropical and the weather in the month of February is cool; the temperature range is expected to be 15-22℃.
About the Department of Zoology and Environmental Sciences, Punjabi University, Patiala
The host Institute, Punjabi University, was established in the year 1962 with the main objective of promoting the cause of the Punjabi language, art, and literature. It is located on the outskirts of Patiala on the Patiala-Rajpura road. The University comprises 65 Teaching and Research Departments on its campus, five Regional Centres, six Neighbourhood Campuses, and 166 affiliated Colleges.
The Department of Zoology was established in the year 1968, in order to offer postgraduate and Ph.D. courses in Zoology and is one of the oldest departments in the University. Subsequently, in the academic year 2011-12, the department was renamed as the Department of Zoology and Environmental Sciences with the commencement of Master’s and Ph.D. programmes in Environmental Sciences. Since the inception of the department, the faculty have relentlessly worked to establish high standards and values of teaching and research. The Department has been recognized by NAAC peer team as one of the best science departments of the University. The department has been supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India under FIST, by University Grants Commission (UGC) under SAP (DRS I and DRS II) and by Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under Interdisciplinary Programme in Life Sciences. The funding thus received, helped the department/faculty to widen their research in the fields of Insect Systematics, Forensic Entomology, Cytogenetics, Molecular Biology, and Animal Physiology. In terms of research, 65 major research projects have successfully been completed, which had been funded by different agencies (UGC, DST, CSIR, ICAR, USPL-480, MoEF, PSCST and PPCB), while five major research projects are currently in progress. The department has produced 150 Ph.D. and 210 M.Phil. students. In addition, about 1500 students have successfully completed their post-graduation, including 70 in Environmental Sciences. The department has so far organized 9 national and 7 international conferences/symposia/workshops. The faculty and scholars have published more than 2000 research papers in national and international journals of repute. Besides, 52 books, including some award-winning contributions, have also been published by the faculty members.
About the Indian Society of Evolutionary Biologists (ISEB):
Established in 2018, the Indian Society of Evolutionary Biologists (ISEB) is an independent society of scholars working in the broad field of Evolutionary Biology in India, as well as other individuals interested in Evolutionary Biology. The society operates with a broad mandate of promoting the study of evolutionary biology in India and to propagate an evolutionary perspective on biological phenomena. The society promotes world class research and teaching in evolutionary biology. It supports the promotion of best practices in different areas of science and works to foster interactions between evolutionary biology and other academic disciplines. Besides, it is committed to the discussion and formulation of policy suggestions on matters relating to evolutionary biology in particular and science in general. In keeping with its aim of promoting evolutionary biology in India through outreach activities, the society has conducted several public talks and has organized two conferences on evolutionary biology (ISEB1 and ISEB 2). This conference is the third in the series.
To read more about ISEB and/or to join the society click here.