School of Tropical Medicine (STM), is one of the seven such Institutions dedicated to research, care and cure of tropical diseases. STM was founded by Sir Leonard Rogers way back in 1914. The corridors of STM had regular footfall of eminent researchers like Leonard Rogers, Ronald Ross, R Knowels, UN Brahmachari, JB Chatterjee, RN Chopra and many others. The foundation stone of the School of Tropical Medicine was laid by the Governor. Lord Carmichael in the year 1914 on 24th February at the initiative of Sir Leonard Rogers.
The School started functioning independently in its own building in 1921 with Lt. Col. JWD Megaw as the first Director, the first batch of students obtaining their Diploma in Tropical Medicine (DTM) in 1922. It is the only institution in India engaged exclusively in research, Post-graduate education and healthcare for tropical diseases. Basically, the objectives have remained unchanged and the school provides facilities for research, post-graduate teaching, training, investigation and treatment in tropical diseases. Presently the institute is under West Bengal University of Health Sciences that governs all the medical colleges in the state of West Bengal. The hospital section of the institute is known as Carmichael Hospital for Tropical Diseases. The Institute possesses a Centre of Excellence where advanced research is going on HIV/HBV Co-infection and Hepatitis B anti-viral therapy.
The latest department to be established in this institute is the Department of Infectious Diseases and Advanced Microbiology which started in the year 2021.