PhD Programme in Biology- August 2023

IISER Pune hosts a diverse group of researchers working in various areas. Research in Biology at IISER Pune encompasses both theoretical and experimental approaches. 

The 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 Biology / Cell Biology / Biochemistry: For students interested in Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Cancer Biology, Cellular Biophysics, Chromosome Biology, Developmental Biology, Epigenetics, Immunology, Microbiology, Neurobiology and Structural Biology. 

• Chaitanya Athale
• Gayathri Pananghat
• Girish Ratnaparkhi
• Jayant Udgaonkar
• Jeetender Chugh
• Kundan Sengupta
• M.S. Madhusudhan
• Mayurika Lahiri
• Mridula Nambiar
• Nixon Abraham
• Nagaraj Balasubramanian
• Saikrishnan Kayarat
• Siddhesh Kamat
• Sudha Rajamani
• Sunish Radhakrishnan
• Thomas Pucadyil

Plant Biology: For students interested in Plant Biology, Plant Biotechnology, Agricultural Biotechnology and Plant Chemical Ecology.

• Anjan Banerjee
• Kalika Prasad
• Sagar Pandit

Theoretical and Computational Biology: For students interested in any branch of Theoretical Biology including Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, Evolution, Bioinformatics and Computational Cell Biology.

• Chaitanya Athale
• Collins Assisi
• Leelavati Narlikar
• M.S. Madhusudhan
• Pranay Goel
• Suhita Nadkarni

Ecology and Evolution: For students interested in Ecology and Evolution (both Theoretical and Empirical). 

Please note that the interviews for this group (Ecology and Evolution) will happen between May 22-24, 2023. 

The eligibility criteria and the application form for this field will be available on or before 01-March-2023. Last date of application: 02-April-2023. 

• Deepak Barua
• Ramana Athreya
• Sagar Pandit
• Sutirth Dey

Note: Only those faculty members whose names are given above will accept students through this round of PhD admissions. Therefore, before applying, students should check this list carefully to ensure that labs of their interest are available for admissions in this round.

Application Criteria

All candidates who fulfill criterion A1 and any one of the criteria mentioned in A2 are eligible to apply. 

Based on the applications received, IISER Pune will create the list of students to be invited for the first round of online interviews that are scheduled to happen between March 29-31, 2023.

Eligibility Criteria

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.

For applicants from General/OBC/EWS category: Applicants must have a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage and not just in the majoring subject) or an equivalent CGPA.

For applicants from SC, ST or PwD category: Applicants must have a minimum of 55% marks in aggregate (overall percentage and not just in the majoring subject) or an equivalent CGPA. 

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 at the time of admission.

                                                                                             AND

A2. Applicants must have any one of the following qualifications.

• Qualified JGEEBILS (IISER Pune will shortlist based on the ranks of the students).
• Qualified a National Level Eligibility Examination 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/ National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste Students by CSIR-UGC / National Fellowship for Higher Education of ST Students / National Fellowship for OBC Candidates / National Fellowship for persons with disabilities (NFPWD). 
  The aforementioned fellowships must be valid on August 31, 2023.
• Qualified JEST, or GPAT or NBHM with a valid score on August 31, 2023. In case, the exam does not mention a validity explicitly, the validity will be taken to be 3 years from the date of intimation of the result to the candidate.
• INSPIRE-PhD fellowship (Should be in possession of provisional selection letter at the time of Interview).
• IISER BS-MS dual degree students with CGPA ≥ 8.0
• Qualified GATE exams (GATE Life Sciences, GATE Chemistry, GATE Eco-Evo, GATE Biotechnology, and GATE Mathematics). The GATE score must be valid on August 31, 2023.

For all the national level eligibility examinations which provide a common rank / score, the cut-off rank / score for shortlisting for the Interviews for the reserved categories shall be lowered to 1.25 times the General category rank / score.

Shortlisting and Interview Process

Meeting the above-mentioned criteria makes the candidate eligible for only the application step. IISER Pune reserves the right to use other/ more stringent criteria for the purpose of shortlisting candidates for the interview stages. Please note that additional criteria will be used for selecting the candidates who will be invited for interviews. Furthermore, the content detailed in the “Research Design” and “Design an experiment” can also be used for the purpose of shortlisting for interviews.

Only those candidates who have been shortlisted for the interview stages will be informed of further details. Therefore, all candidates are requested to check this page regularly for updates. The referees of the shortlisted candidates alone shall be contacted for the reference letters.

Application Form: Click Here

Admissions for PhD programme in Chemistry – January 2023

Department of Chemistry at IISER Pune encompasses diverse research areas of interest. There are many exciting research fields including inter-disciplinary research areas to explore. There are opportunities to work in experimental fields as well as theoretical, computational fields to solve the research problems.

The following faculty members have vacancies for the upcoming PhD Admission, January 2023.

Inorganic Chemistry:  Porphyrinoids, Molecular recognition, Organometallic Chemistry, Metal-Organic framework, Inorganic and Material Chemistry, Transition Metal Based Homogeneous Catalysis, Chemistry of Main Group Elements, Thin films of Metal-organic, metallo enzymes and Fe/S proteins etc. 

• V. G. Anand
• R. Boomi Shankar
• Sujit Ghosh
• Nirmalya Ballav
• Shabana Khan
• Moumita Majumdar
• Debangsu Sil

Organic Chemistry:  Organic synthesis and Chemical Biology, Supramolecular Chemistry, Peptides and applications, Polymers & Biomaterials, Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Biophysics Asymmetric synthesis, Flow chemistry, Chemical Biology of microbes, Protein Biochemistry etc.

• Pinaki Talukdar
• Hosahudya N. Gopi 
• M. Jayakannan
• Ramakrishna G. Bhat
• Boopathy Gnanaprakasam
• Harinath Chakrapani

Physical Chemistry Experimental and Spectroscopy:  Spectroscopy of Materials, Photophysics, Gas Phase Laser Spectroscopy, Optoelectronic properties of perovskite semiconductors, Electrochemical Energy Storage, Fuel Cells, Understanding Protein-RNA interactions etc.

• Partha Hazra
• Aloke Das
• Nirmalya Ballav
• Angshuman Nag
• Muhammed Musthafa   
• Jeetender Chugh  

Theoretical and Computational Physical Chemistry:  Computer Simulations of Battery Electrolytes and Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells, Chemical Physics (analytical theory), Polymer physics (simulations, Computational Material Science), Computational Material Science etc.

• Arun Venkatnathan
• Srabanti Chaudhury

Admission Procedure

For admission to the PhD Programme, interested candidates with good academic track record satisfying the below mentioned eligibility criteria can apply.

Eligibility Criteria:

1. A.

Minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in the majoring subject) or an                    equivalent C.G.P.A on a 10-point scale (55% or an equivalent C.G.P.A in aggregate for SC/ST and                Specially abled candidates PD/VH) in Masters' Degree in any branch of Science: Chemistry / Physics/      Mathematics / Biology or equivalent.  Candidates with Integrated BS-MS degree / B.E. / B. Tech. / B.        Pharm. / ME / M. Tech. / M. Pharm. degree satisfying the above criteria of marks can also apply.

AND

1. B. 

In addition to the above criteria, the candidate MUST have qualified atleast any ONE of the following exams:

a. National Eligibility Test (NET) with VALID CSIR-JRF/UGC-JRF#

b. INSPIRE-PhD fellowship
     (Should be in possession of INSPIRE fellowship provisional selection letter at the time of Interview)

c. CSIR/UGC NET-LS# or GATE#†

#Applicants with valid UGC/CSIR-JRF, NET-LS and GATE will be further screened based on the ranks/score for their eligibility set by the Institute/Department committee.

†Please note that the cut-off/ rank for the reserved category candidates is 1.25 times that of the unreserved category candidates.

OR

 2. IISER BS-MS (All IISERs) dual degree students with CGPA >= 8.0

Please note that above scores/ranks/fellowships MUST be valid at least till 28 February, 2023.

Selection Procedure:

Based on application forms received and the above listed criteria, applicants will be further shortlisted for the interview based on additional criteria set by the Department. All the candidates selected for the interview will receive a separate email to appear for the online interview. Shortlisted candidates will be selected for admission to the PhD programme through a rigorous evaluation process that includes an interview by a selection committee. The mere application/shortlisting does not guarantee admission into the PhD programme.

**The department of Data Science is not admitting students for January 2023 session**

Admissions for PhD Programme in Data Science - August 2022

The admission procedure for the August 2022 batch has been completed.

List of candidates selected for programme

List of candidates shortlisted for online interviews

For admissions to the PhD Programme in Data Science, interested candidates with a good academic track record satisfying the eligibility criteria below can apply:

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in the majoring subject) or an equivalent C.G.P.A on a 10-point scale (55% or an equivalent C.G.P.A in aggregate for SC, ST, and Specially abled candidates PD/VH) in Master’s degree or a four-year Bachelor’s Degree like B.E., B.Tech, or equivalent in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, or related branches.

AND

2. In addition to the above, the candidate must have at least one of the following qualifications:

1. Qualified a national eligibility exam such as CSIR-JRF, UGC-JRF, DBT-JRF-A, DBT-BINC-JRF, JEST, NBHM, GATE, JGEEBILS, etc. The corresponding score/selection/award letter must be valid for the August 2022 session.
2. INSPIRE-PhD fellowship (should be in possession of provisional selection letter at the time of Interview).
3. An integrated BS-MS dual degree from any of the IISERs with CGPA ≥ 8.0

Selection procedure: Based on the application forms received, the above-listed criteria, and additional criteria set by the Department, applicants will be shortlisted for interviews. Shortlisted candidates will be screened for admission to the PhD programme through a rigorous evaluation process that includes an interview and other criteria set by a selection committee. The mere application or shortlisting does not guarantee admission into the PhD programme.

Application Form

Please click here to apply

Apply Now

PhD in Earth and Climate Science- January 2023

**None of the candidates have been selected for PhD programme commencing from January 2023 session**

List of candidates shortlisted for online Interviews

The department of Earth and Climate Science at IISER Pune invites applications from highly-motivated students for admissions to the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programme for the session January-2023.

Research Areas: 

•  Geochemistry (under the supervision of Dr. Gyana Ranjan Tripathy)

         For details contact Dr. Tripathy

• Glaciology (under the supervision of Dr. Argha Banerjee)

Only candidates with a strong background in undergraduate Physics and Maths, and Computer Programming may apply. The selected candidate is expected to contribute to an Indo-Swiss collaborative project, which starts in 2023, participating in field studies and modelling of debris-covered glaciers in upper Alaknanda basin, Central Himalaya.  

Minimum Eligibility:

1. Students with minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in majoring subject) or a CGPA of 6 on a 10-point scale (55% or equivalent CGPA in aggregate for SC, ST and PD candidates) in Master’s (or BS-MS) degree in Geology/Applied Geology/Geophysics/Physics/Mathematics/Ocean Science/Atmospheric Science/ Climate Science/Engineering or related subjects. BE/BTech students may also apply. 

        Additionally, the candidate MUST have qualified in any ONE of the following exams: 

1. National Eligibility Test (NET) with valid* CSIR-JRF / UGC-JRF,
2. INSPIRE-PhD fellowship* (The candidate must be in possession of provisional selection letter at the time of interview),
3. DAE-JEST or GATE with a valid* score. 

*The score/rank/award letter MUST be valid at least till February 01, 2023.

OR,

2. IISER BS-MS students with major in one of the subjects mentioned above with CGPA >= 8.0

Selection Procedure: Selection will be based on online interviews of the shortlisted candidates. 

Note: 

• Only online application will be accepted. 
• Applying does not automatically guarantee that a candidate will be shortlisted for interview. The department may use additional criteria in order to shortlist candidates for interviews depending on the number of applications received. 

**The department of Humanities and Social Sciences is not admitting students for January 2023 session**

Admissions for PhD Programme in Humanities and Social Sciences - August 2022 

The admission procedure for the August 2022 batch has been completed.

List of candidates selected for the PhD programme in Humanities and Social Sciences

List of candidates shortlisted for Interviews and Important Instructions

Research Areas

History of Ideas, Modern Indian Political Thought, Gandhian Studies, Gender and Indian Politics, Social Movements and Indian Politics, multidimensional poverty and inequality, water management and livelihoods in agrarian and peri-urban areas Environmental Sociology, Political Ecology, Social Transformation, Urbanization, Sociology of Climate Change, Disaster and Development, Environmental Justice, Gender Studies, Sanskrit, Experiential Learning, History of Architecture, History of Art, Archaeology, History of Astronomy, Material Culture, Epigraphy, Political Theory, Political Philosophy

Eligibility Criteria

1A. The applicant should have a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate and not only in the majoring subject or an equivalent C.G.P.A on a 10-point scale (55% or equivalent C.G.P.A in aggregate for SC, ST and PD candidates) in their Master’s (MA/MSc/MPhil/BS-MS) Degree, in one or more than one subject which includes Sciences, Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural Heritage Studies, Economics, English, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Sanskrit, Sociology, the Fine arts, and allied disciplines.

Applicants from Architecture, Engineering/ Technology, and Medicine are eligible after a Bachelor’s degree
(minimum four years).

Additionally, the candidate MUST have qualified in any ONE of the following exams with any science or humanities/social sciences subject:

1. National Eligibility Test (NET) with valid* CSIR-JRF / UGC-JRF
2. CSIR-UGC NET-LS (from examinations conducted during the years 2020 and 2021)
3. NBHM/GATE with a valid* score (*The score/rank MUST be valid at least till August 31, 2022.)

OR

1B. IISER BS-MS (All IISERs) students with a major in one of the subjects mentioned above with CGPA >= 8.0

Candidates in the final year of the qualifying degree are also eligible to apply. However, their final selection is subject to their successful completion of the qualifying degree with the above-mentioned requirements at the time of admission.

Selection Procedure

Based on the application forms and the above-listed criteria, applicants will be shortlisted for an interview. Candidates shortlisted for the interview will receive a separate email to appear for the interview at the IISER Pune campus. Selection will be based on interviews of the short-listed candidates.

Note

• Only online applications are accepted. Incomplete applications will be rejected.
• Applying does not automatically guarantee that a candidate will be shortlisted for the interview. The department may use additional criteria in order to shortlist candidates for interviews depending on the number of applications received.
• For all the national eligibility examinations which provide a common rank/score, the cut-off rank/score for shortlisting for the Interviews for the reserved categories shall be lowered to 1.25 times the General category rank/score.

PhD Programme in Discrete Mathematics - January 2023

List of candidates selected for PhD programme- January 2023

List of candidates shortlisted for online interviews

The Department of Mathematics at IISER Pune invites application from candidates satisfying the below-mentioned criteria for admission to the PhD Programme commencing from January 2023 session.

Minimum Eligibility Criteria:

Students with minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in majoring subject) or an equivalent C.G.P.A on a 10-point scale (55% or an equivalent C.G.P.A in aggregate for SC, ST and PD candidates) in any Master’s degree or a four-year Bachelor’s Degree such as B.E., B. Tech in related branches satisfying the above criteria of marks can apply.

Additionally, the candidate MUST satisfy at least any ONE of the following criteria-

1. Selected for the NBHM Doctoral Scholarship 2022

2. Qualified National Eligibility Test (NET) with valid* CSIR-JRF/UGC-JRF in Mathematics or Computer Science and Applications

3. INSPIRE-PhD fellowship holders(Must be in possession of Provisional Selection Letter at the time of Interview)

4. Valid* GATE rank (Rank upto 20 for unreserved category candidates and upto 24 for reserved category candidates) in Mathematics or Computer Science and Information Technology

5. Integrated BS-MS from any of the IISERs with a C.G.P.A more than or equal to 8 out of 10

(*Validity: The scores/ranks MUST be valid atleast till 1st February 2023)

Please Note:

1. Only online application will be accepted.
2. Meeting the above-mentioned criteria merely makes the candidate eligible for application. IISER Pune reserves the right to use other / more stringent criteria for the purpose of shortlisting for interviews. The mere application/shortlisting does not guarantee admission into the PhD programme.

Application Form: Apply Now

**The department of Physics is not admitting students for January 2023 session**

Admission to PhD Programme in Physics for the August 2022 Batch

The admission procedure for the August 2022 batch has been completed.

List of candidates selected/ waitlisted for PhD programme in Physics

List of candidates shortlisted for Interviews

IISER Pune invites applications for the PhD programme in Physics for the session starting in August 2022. 

Eligibility Criteria 

The candidate should have a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in the majoring subject) or an equivalent C.G.P.A on a 10-point scale (55% or equivalent C.G.P.A in aggregate for SC, ST and PD candidates) in MSc or BTech/BE. 

Those students who are currently in the final year of the postgraduate programs are welcome to apply. If shortlisted after the final interviews, the final admission will be subject to the condition that the above criteria are met. 

AND 

The candidate MUST satisfy at least one among the following mandatory criteria: 

1. Qualified National Eligibility Test (NET) with a score in CSIR-JRF/UGC-JRF category. The score should be valid at the time of admission in August 2022.

OR

  b. Qualified GATE or JEST PhD Physics {The candidate should have a rank equal to 500 or better (or a rank of 625 or better for SC/ST/EWS/PD/OBC-NCL candidates)}. This rank should be valid at the time of admissions in August 2022. 

OR

 c. INSPIRE-PhD fellowship

 (The candidate should possess a provisional selection letter for PhD fellowship at the time of the personal interview)

OR

 d. Integrated BS-MS dual degree from any of the IISERs with CGPA greater than or equal to 8.0

 Additional criteria, beyond the above eligibility criteria, may be imposed when shortlisting candidates at the interview stage. 

Interview 

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to appear for interviews to be conducted online/in person.

The final selection to the program will be based on the candidate's performance in these interviews.

Further Information

• For more information about the PhD Physics programme, please visit the following link https://www.iiserpune.ac.in/research/department/physics
• Any queries regarding admissions may be addressed to physicsphdselection@iiserpune.ac.in
• Call for interviews will be sent tentatively within 2 weeks after the application submission deadline