The years 1900 – 1913 are demarcated as the first phase in the history of the department and the period of inauguration of the subject in India. Dr. Subodh Chandra Mahalanobis returned from England to India in 1900 and joined the Provincial Bengal Educational Service. He was posted at Presidency College as the Head of the Department of Biology, which at that time comprised of Human Physiology and Botany. In 1902, study of Human Physiology started as a separate course at Presidency College, which was officially recognized in 1903 by the University of Calcutta. On Founders’ Day 20th January 1913, the new building for science subjects, later named as Baker Laboratories, was formally inaugurated and the Department of Human Physiology was transferred to its present site in the second floor of this new building. In 1915, the University of Calcutta gave affiliation in M.Sc. in Human Physiology to this department. In 1923, during the tenure of Dr. N.M.Basu as Head of the Department, Nobel Laureate E.H. Sterling visited this department. In 1939, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, as Vice-chancellor of Calcutta University convened a historic meeting and took two important resolutions in favour of this department: (a) PG teaching in Physiology at Presidency College should continue as before; and (b) University should not open Honours course in Physiology as this was running at its best at Presidency College. In 1944, Nobel Laureate and the then Secretary of the Royal Society of England Sir A.V. Hill visited the department. From 1947 to 1959, the department was under the able stewardship of Prof. Sachchidananda Banerjee, the first D.Sc. in Physiology from Calcutta University. In 1960, Dr. Achintya Kumar Mukherjee joined the post of Professor and Head of the Department. In 1983, he became the Principal of Presidency College and served for another 4 years. Dr. Haripada Chattopadhyay worked as an interim Head of the department from 1984-1987. In 1988, Dr. Chandan Mitra joined the post of Professor and Head of the Department. In 2001, the department celebrated 100 years of UG teaching in this department as well as in India. The Centenary Postgraduate Wing was inaugurated during that celebration and in that same year the department was affiliated for independent postgraduate teaching. In 2004, the department was given full academic autonomy for postgraduate teaching. The department organized The XVIII Annual Conference of the Physiological Society of India on December 8-10, 2006. The 32nd Re-Union of past and present students will be held this year (2008), possibly in the third week of December.