Prof. Janak Pandey, an acclaimed scholar and administrator, who was also the Vice Chancellor of the Central University of Bihar is the founder Head of CBCS. He was the Head of the center till March 2009 and was instrumental in establishing the Centre.
Let us see what he has to say about CBCS.
The Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Science is a gift to the Nation. The Centre established under the UGC Scheme “Universities with Potential for Excellence” in 2002 has achieved international standard in a short span of time both in teaching and research. It has developed as an island of excellence as envisaged and expected under the scheme. It was a privilege and opportunity to serve as its founding Coordinator/ Head. The Centre only of its kind in India with Master, Doctoral and research programs fills major void in the academic space. The development of Cognitive Science in the last two decades has been phenomenal in prestigious universities worldwide. The Department of Science and Technology recognizes the Cognitive Science as one of the four pillars of knowledge along with Nano, Bio, and information technologies. The Centre, therefore, has a very special role of continuously upgrading its Master and Doctoral programs leading to development of quality manpower for teaching and research. It is a matter of great satisfaction that more than a dozen of its master students are making good progress in the doctoral programs of prestigious Universities of the world (e.g., University of Birmingham, University of Arizona, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Connecticut, University of Cincinnati, University of Louisville, Technical University of Kaiserslatern). The Centre has doctoral programs with course work and some of its doctoral students have presented their work in national and international conferences. The faculty and students have published in high impact journals. In its leadership role the Centre has organized a number of International Congresses and proceedings have been published by internationally reputed publishers. All these have been possible by very hard work of the faculty and students who are from all over of the country. The Head of the Centre Prof. Naryanan Srinivasan and his colleagues Drs Bhoomika Kar, Chandrasekhar Pammi, and Ramesh K Mishra representing interfacing disciplines are highly motivated and hard working. They individually and collectively bring a variety of high quality expertise and international experience. I am sure the academic culture built in the 8 years will be sustained and further strengthened. May I also thank the Administration of the University and particularly former Vice Chancellor Prof G K Mehta and present Vice chancellor Prof R G Harshe for their support and encouragement in building this Centre. A number of colleagues from other departments and other institutions (to name a few, Prof. P.N. Tandon, Prof. G.C. Gupta, Prof. L.B. Tripathi, Prof. R.C.Tripathi, Prof. A.K. Gupta, Prof. D.N. Dwivedi, Prof. U.S.T Tewary, Prof. Komilla Thapa, Prof. Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath, Prof. R.C. Mishra, Prof. Ajit Mohanty, Prof. Manas Mandal) helped in shaping the Centre in many ways. The Centre has highly dedicated support staff and they provide the best services and maintain facilities for teaching and research. I feel fortunate to remain associated with the Centre.
— Prof. Janak Pandey