Est. 1932

Rev. Fr. Gonzalo Palacios who was then the Principal of the college, founded the Department of Microbiology in the year 1931.

Dr. J.V. Bhat succeeded Fr. Palacios as Head of Department. Dr. Bhat’s research interests were many, sweeping across several areas in microbiology like aquatic and fisheries microbiology, dairy and food microbiology, biodegradation, environmental microbiology, and microbial ecology.

In 1953, Dr. Fabian Fernandes took over as Head of the Department with Medical Microbiology as his key interest area. He left the department in 1959 to join the Ciba Geigy Research Centre.

Dr. Lancy Pereira S.J. was Head of Department from 1974 to 1980. His chief interests were in the field of microbial metabolism. He was instrumental in starting the Caius Research Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research and was the principal of the college.

Dr. Yvonne Freitas was the first lady to head the department. Through her long tenure as Head of the Department from 1959 to 1974 and 1980 to 1989, she has held various significant posts in the field of academics. She was First Lady Vice-Principal of the college and First Lady Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Mumbai. She retired in 1989 as Head of Department.

Dr. Vivien Amonkar took the department of Microbiology to new heights. She was the longest-serving HoD of the department from 1989 to 2016. As Vice Principal Academic Improvement, she was chiefly responsible for the giving the college its Autonomous status.