SCHOOL OF EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES

Profile of the School

   The School had its genesis with the formulation of the Department of Geography in 1971 under the visionary Geographer Dr. (Late) Miss. A. R. Irawathy. Targeting the Southern districts which were out of reach to this branch of knowledge, the Department offers M. Sc., M. Phil and Ph.D. programmes in Geography. By introducing innovative and emerging areas in the curriculum, the Department made a notable contribution in the fields of Urban Geography, Medical Geography, Transportation Geography, Agricultural Geography, Remote Sensing and GIS. The Department of Geography also initiated an Advanced Post Graduate Diploma in GIS and Remote Sensing Applications under the UGC Innovative Programme from 2007.

   Realizing that the future belonged to space based technology and the need for trained manpower in this field, a new Department of Environmental Remote Sensing and Cartography was established. This Department offers Two year M.Sc., programme on Environmental Remote Sensing and Cartography, the first of its kind in the country. Now the programme is upgraded as Earth Remote Sensing and Geo Information Technology and is recognized by UGC as an Innovative Programme.

   Department of Future Studies, Madurai Kamaraj University has been Started as Centre in the year 1990. It has been supported by the UGC by considering the importance of the inter –disciplinary approach in the state-of-art technologies. From the year 1994, Government of Tamil Nadu has granted its concurrence to support the Centre by all means. In the Same year, the Centre has been elevated to Department of Future studies was attached to School of Energy Sciences which has high potential on many disciplines including Future studies.

   Planning that too at micro level is very much essential for appropriate development. For healthy and Sustainable development, Holistic perspective of future is necessary. Future Studies is a multi-disciplinary / trans- disciplinary field where a holistic and futuristic perspective of overall development is evolved. This will help in identifying the alternatives for future and designing the desirable future in different areas and hence should contribute towards long-range perspective planning and evolving action plan. Futures Studies is not the prediction of the dreams of the 25th Century. But is a useful concept to consider the possible, probable and feasible product and process options of the future and their impacts in multi – disciplinary perspectives.

   The School got the UGC SAP-DRS Phase II status from 2013.Previously the School completed the UGC SAP –DRS Phase I from 2007- 2012 with a funding of about 20 lakhs. With a well equipped library of over 6000 books and a state of Art Laborartory of over 60 networked PCs, the School has the best infrastructure available in the Southern parts of the State. All the major Image Processing and GIS software are avaliable for the students who got more hands on experience which helps them to get easy placement after the completion of their courses. The alumni of the School are working in various reputed institutions like Survey of India, Census of India, Indian Space Research Organization, National Institute of Ocean Technology, many industrial concerns and various Universities, Colleges and Schools. The School has an average placement ratio of 85%.

Details of Alumni Members