Post Graduate Department of Chemistry of Heritage and Autonomous Institution,KanyaMaha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar organized an Educational visit to Institute of Microbial Technology,Chandigarh on 29^th April, 2022. Our fourteen Master’s students and thirty six undergraduates accompanied by three faculties (Dr. Narinderjit, Dr. Swati and Ms. Navdeep) were part of this educational visit. The visit was aimed at exploring the students about working environment of a National level Research Institute. On our arrival, Mr. Kailash, principal scientist of IMTECH welcomed all of us and briefed about the research divisions and activities of the research institute.

First of all we were accompanied by Dr. Manishankar to Mircobial Type Culture Collection (MTCC) and Gene Bank facility. The centre aimed at providing state of art facilities in microbiology and microbial diversity research. The centre is also responsible for supplying authentic microbial cultures and microbial characterization and deposition. The students showed a great enthusiasm in observing and learning all the techniques which are being used in microbial culture. Subsequently, we were shown there Biochemical Engineering Research and Process Development Centre. This centre fulfills the objectives of research and development of various biochemical processes using fermentation technology. It works very close to industry and involves the protection of intellectual property rights which regulates the transfer of technology from institute to industry. The students were amazed to see such a strong bridging between academia and industry. The students were also exposed to sophisticated instrumentation facility of the institute like SEM, TEM, X-Ray crystallography, etc. The 300 MHz NMR instrument was of their great interest.

Finally, we visited there bioinformatics division, where we were shown their high cluster computing systems. These systems are used for drug designing and observing drug-protein interactions before the drug is synthesized at laboratory scale.

After visit to various divisions at the end, our students interacted with the scientists where they asked questions about all possible procedures to get an internship in institute. Our students were well appreciated for their disciplined behavior and curious attitude.  Principal Dr. Atima Sharma Dwivedi applauded the efforts of the teachers to organize such educational visits which are important for bridging the gap between classroom learning and practical exposure.