Dr V Sankaran did his Ph
D under the guidance of Prof T V Desikachary, at C A S In Botany, University
of Madras on Culture studies of Nostoc strains. In 1972 he was appointed as
Head of the department of Botany, N G M College, Pollachi, Tamilnadu. During
his tenure as head of the department he developed the department from the
ancillary level to research level. He has done extensive collection and study
of algae of Anaimalai hills and surrounding areas and published a number of
research papers. He has also guided a number of M Phil and Ph D candidates
of Bharathiar University. He has completed a number of research projects funded
by various agencies. The projects include freshwater algae of Anamalais, algal
succession in tributaries of Amaravathy, Noyyal and Bhavani. He has also completed
a project on integrated research on Cauvery which was sponsored by Ministry
of Environment and forests. After retirement in 1998, he continued to publish
papers with the accumulated data on algal floristics of Anamalais. He was
also in the executive committee of Krishnamurthy institute of Algology, Chennai
and contributed to the growth of the institute.
He was an excellent teacher of algology and Angiosperm Taxonomy and loved
by all his students. He was a teacher with an inherent passion for imparting
knowledge to all those who had come under his tutelage of whatever he had
learnt and had immense love and affection for all his students. This quality
of Prof Sankaran has made him a teacher of Flute in Carnatic music also to
many. He was a student of the illustrious Flute Ramani and once when he had
gone through the practice had preferred to be a teacher rather than a performer
on stage. Of course he had his share of stage performances too. Another quality
of Prof Sankaran was his perseverance and unfailing follow through activities
in all his commitments which I think would be stellar quality in all achievers.
An affable person always smiling and polite, ever ready to share his ideas
with others, he will be very dearly missed by all his colleagues friends and
students.
