Ph.D. Programme in Biology (January 2023)

IISER Pune hosts a diverse group of researchers working in various areas. Research in Biology at IISER Pune 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:

Ecology and Evolution: For students interested in ecology and evolution (both theoretical and empirical).

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

Molecular Biology / Cell Biology / Biochemistry: For students interested in molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, cellular biophysics, developmental biology, microbiology, immunology, epigenetics, chromosome biology, and cancer biology.

• Gayathri Pananghat
• Jayant Udgaonkar
• Jeetender Chugh
• Kundan Sengupta
• MS Madhusudhan
• Mayurika Lahiri
• Nagaraj Balasubramanian
• Sudha Rajamani

Plant Biology: For students interested in plant biology and plant biotechnology.

• 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
• Leelavati Narlikar
• MS Madhusudhan
• Pranay Goel
• Suhita Nadkarni

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 fulfil criteria A1 and any one of the criteria mentioned in A2, are eligible to apply. Based on these applications, IISER Pune will create the list of students to be invited for the online interviews.

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. Applicants must have a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage and not just in majoring subject) or an equivalent CGPA in the General /OBC/EWS category or minimum 55% marks in aggregate (overall percentage and not just in majoring subject) or an equivalent CGPA in the SC,ST or PwD category. 

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.

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

• Qualified a National Eligibility exam that provides a 5-year Ph.D. fellowship such as CSIR–JRF / UGC–JRF / DBT–JRF–A / ICMR–JRF / DBT–BINC–JRF / Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship / Maulana Azad 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 fellowships must be valid on February 01, 2023.
• Qualified JEST, or GPAT or NBHM with a valid score on February 01, 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 February 01, 2023.
• Qualified JGEEBILS (IISER Pune will shortlist based on the ranks of the students).
• 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.

Shortlisting and Interview Process:

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. Specifically, the scores obtained in the “Research Design” and “Design an experiment” can be used for the purpose of shortlisting for interviews. Only shortlisted candidates will be informed. 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: https://forms.gle/PzS8JhGrJFSJ8n6U9

Admissions for PhD Programme in Chemistry - August 2022 

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

The 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 theoretical, computational as well as experimental fields to approach and solve the research problems. The broad research disciplines and the list of faculty members with different research expertise having vacancies in their labs are given below.

Inorganic Chemistry:  Organometallic Chemistry, Metal-Organic framework, Inorganic and Material Chemistry, Energy Harvesting, Transition Metal Based Homogeneous Catalysis, Chemistry of Main Group Elements, Thin films of Metal-organic etc.

• R. Boomi Shankar
• Sujit K. Ghosh
• Ramanathan Vaidhyanathan
• Shabana Khan
• Moumita Majumdar
• Nirmalya Ballav

Organic Chemistry:  Organic synthesis and Chemical Biology, Peptides and applications, Carbohydrates and Glycomics, Polymers & Biomaterials, Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Biophysics, Redox Chemical Biology, Protein Engineering, Asymmetric synthesis, Flow chemistry etc.

• H. N. Gopi
• M. Jayakannan
• S. G. Srivatsan
• Harinath Chakrapani
• Raghavendra Kikkeri
• Boopathy Gnanaprakasam
• Sandanaraj Britto
• Ramakrishna G. Bhat

Physical Chemistry Experimental and Spectroscopy:  Biophysics-Protein folding, Gas Phase Laser Spectroscopy, Spectroscopy of Materials, Photophysics, Optoelectronic properties of perovskite semiconductors, Tera-Hertz Spectroscopy, Electrochemical Energy Storage, Fuel Cells, Batteries, Functional Nano-materials, Understanding Protein-RNA interactions etc.

• Jayant Udgaonkar
• Aloke Das
• Partha Hazra
• Nirmalya Ballav
• Pankaj Mandal
• Pramod Pillai
• Muhammed Musthafa 
• Jeetender Chugh 
• Dr. Angshuman Nag

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

• Arun Venkatnathan
• Srabanti Chaudhury
• Arnab Mukherjee
• Prasenjit Ghosh

Admission Procedure

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

Eligibility Criteria:

1A. Minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in the majoring subject) or an equivalent C.G.P.A on 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

1B. In addition to the above criteria, the candidate MUST have qualified 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

Above scores/ranks/fellowships MUST be valid at least till December 2022.

Selection procedure: Based on the 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 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.

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

Admissions for PhD Programme in Earth and Climate Science - August 2022 

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

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 starting August 2022.

List of candidates selected for admission to the PhD programme (Geochemistry and Paleontology)

List of candidates selected for admission to the PhD programme (Glaciology)

List of candidates shortlisted for the online interviews

Research Areas:

A. Geochemistry (contact Dr. S Managave for details)

B. Glaciology (contact Dr. A Banerjee for details)

C. Paleontology (contact Dr. D Chattopadhyay for details)

Minimum Eligibility

1. Students with a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in majoring subject) or equivalent C.G.P.A in aggregate 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 / Atmosphere Science / Climate Science / Engineering, or related subjects. BE / B.Tech students may also apply. The C.G.P.A cut-off for BE/B.Tech candidates are the same as above. Candidates must have Physics or Chemistry, and Mathematics at their BSc or equivalent degree level.

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

1. National Eligibility Test (NET) with valid* CSIR-JRF / UGC-JRF or CSIR-LS / UGC-LS
2. INSPIRE-PhD fellowship (The candidate should be in possession of provisional selection letter at the time of the interview),
3. DAE-JEST or GATE with a valid* score.
   *The score/rank MUST be valid at least until August 31, 2022.

  OR

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

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.

Selection procedure: Selection will be based on interviews of the short-listed candidates.

For position B, a strong background in undergraduate-level physics, mathematics, and computer programming is expected. The selected candidate has to participate in fieldwork. 

For position C, a strong background in geology is expected, and candidates with prior experience in Paleontological research and fieldwork will be preferred.

Please Note: 

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

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 Mathematics - August 2022

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

List of candidates selected for PhD Programme in Mathematics

List of candidates shortlisted for online Interviews

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 B.E., B. Tech. in related branches satisfying the above criteria of marks can apply.  

Additionally, the candidate MUST satisfy any ONE of the following criteria:

1.      Appeared for NBHM PhD written exam 2022 and shortlisted for NBHM PhD interviews.

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

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

4.      Valid* GATE rank in Mathematics or Computer Science and Information Technology.

5.      Qualified for the Prime Minister Research Fellowship, and the fellowship should be valid*.

6.      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 at the time of admission.)

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.

Application form

Click here to apply.

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