PhD Programme in Biology - January 2021
IISER Pune hosts a diverse group of researchers working in various areas. Research in Biology at IISER currently encompasses both theoretical and experimental approaches. Fields of research open to application in this round of PhD selections are given below, along with names of faculty members working in the respective fields:
Molecular/Cell Biology and Biochemistry: For students interested in molecular biology, cell biology, neurobiology, cellular biophysics, developmental biology, microbiology, immunology, epigenetics, chromosome biology, cancer biology, chemistry/physics and biology, structural biology and molecular biophysics.
- Aurnab Ghose
- Gayathri Pananghat
- Jayant Udgaonkar
- Jeetender Chugh
- M.S. Madhusudhan
- Mayurika Lahiri
- Nishad Matange
- Nixon Abraham
- Raghav Rajan
- Richa Rikhy
- Saikrishnan Kayarat
- Sudha Rajamani
- Sunish Radhakrishnan
Ecology and Evolution: For students interested in ecology and evolution (both theoretical and empirical).
- Deepak Barua
- Nishad Matange
- Ramana Athreya
- Sutirth Dey
Plant Biology: For students interested in plant biology and plant biotechnology.
- Anjan Banerjee
- Sagar Pandit
Theoretical and Computational Biology: For students interested in any branch of theoretical biology including theoretical neuroscience, evolution, bioinformatics and computational cell biology.
- Chaitanya Athale
- Collins Assisi
- M.S. Madhusudhan
- Pranay Goel
- Ramana Athreya
- Suhita Nadkarni
- Sutirth Dey
A1. Masters' (or B.E., B.Tech., M.Tech, MBBS) degree holders in any branch of science including Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biological sciences, Ecology and Environmental sciences, Biodiversity, Psychology or equivalent.
Students whose final results in Masters or equivalent are yet to be declared can also apply. However, if selected, the offer for these students will be provisional, subject to their fulfilling the above criteria.
A2. Applicants must have qualified a National Level Eligibility exam that provides a 5-year PhD fellowship such as CSIR-JRF# / UGC-JRF# / DBT-JRF-A / ICMR-JRF / DBT-BINC-JRF / Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship, etc.
# - CSIR/UGC-JRF rank/ score MUST be valid at least till June 30, 2021.
1. Applicants must submit their application online before 5:00 pm Indian Standard Time on November 8, 2020. Please read all the instructions provided on the form carefully. Please see a sample form here, to know the information that you will need when filling the online application form above.
2. Names of the faculty members who plan to admit students from this round of admissions are listed above. Other groups will not be admitting students in this round. The faculty members have been grouped under four sub-areas and a student can apply for up to two sub-areas.
3. After the application deadline, we will create lists of students who will be invited for online interviews with committees representing the various sub-areas. Based on the application form and the requirements listed on the admissions page, applicants will be further shortlisted for the interview based on the additional criteria set by the respective Department. The mere application/shortlisting does not guarantee admission into the PhD program. In particular, we will consider the quality of the proposed research questions and study designs to make the shortlist.
4. There will be two rounds of interviews in every field. Only those students, who are shortlisted in the first round, will be interviewed in the second round.
Please inform your referees to send a reference letter directly to biophdselection@iiserpune.ac.in, before November 27, 2020. We shall also contact your referees directly, requesting for the recommendation letters.
Please request them to use only this format (.pdf, .docx).
Queries: In case of queries, please email Prof. Sutirth Dey (s.dey@iiserpune.ac.in).