PhD Admissions in Biology January 2024

IMPORTANT UPDATE

All students who applied for Ph.D. in Biology need to fill out a second departmental form. The link to the form has already been emailed to all applicants. Anyone who has not received the said email must contact biologyapplications@acads.iiserpune.ac.in immediately.
The last date for submitting the form is 15-Nov-2023.

APPLICATION CALL

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 as follows:

Ecology and Evolution
For students interested in Ecology and Evolution. This includes Theoretical and Empirical aspects of Ecology (Agricultural, Chemical, Molecular, Plant, Physiological, Microbial), Evolution (Life-History) and Biodiversity (Taxonomic, Functional and Phylogenetic).

Faculty listing:

1. Deepak Barua
2. Ramana Athreya
3. Sagar Pandit
4. Sutirth Dey

Molecular/Cell Biology/Biochemistry
For students interested in molecular biology, cell biology, cellular biophysics, developmental biology, microbiology, immunology, epigenetics, chromosome biology, conformational dynamics of proteins,  metabolomics and cancer biology.

Faculty listing:

1. Amrita Hazra
2. Chaitanya Athale
3. Kundan Sengupta
4. Mayurika Lahiri
5. Nagaraj Balasubramanian
6. Sudha Rajamani
7. Jeetender Chugh

Plant Sciences

For students interested in Plant Cell and Developmental Biology, Plant Biotechnology, Agricultural Biotechnology, Plant Physiology, Plant Ecology, and Plant Chemical Ecology

Faculty listing:

1. Deepak Barua
2. Sagar Pandit

Theoretical and Computational Biology
For students interested in any branch of theoretical biology including theoretical neuroscience, evolution, bioinformatics and computational cell biology.

Faculty listing:

1. Chaitanya Athale
2. Collins Assisi
3. Pranay Goel
4. Suhita Nadkarni

IMPORTANT

1. There will not be any rotations. Students will directly join the labs of their choice.
2. Note that the faculty members whose names are listed here are the ones who will be accepting students in this round of PhD admissions. However, this list is expected to undergo some revision after lab allocations of Aug intake PhD students is complete. Students should factor this possibility while thinking about labs of their interest from this list of names provided. A final updated list of available faculty will be shared with students selected for the final round of interviews.

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 online interviews.

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 CGPA of 6/10 in the general category or minimum 55% marks in aggregate (overall percentage and not just in majoring subject) or equivalent CGPA of 5.5 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.

Criteria A2. Applicants must have any one of the following qualification.

• 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. The fellowships must be valid until 31-January-2024.
• Qualified JEST (rank holder up to 500) or GPAT (rank holder up to 500) or NBHM in last two years.
• INSPIRE-Ph.D. fellowship (should be in possession of provisional selection letter at the time of Interview).
• IISER BS-MS dual degree students with CGPA ≥ 8.0 Rank =200 in GATE exams (GATE Life Sciences, GATE Chemistry, GATE Eco-Evo, GATE Biotechnology, GATE Mathematics). The GATE score must be valid until 31-January-2024.
• Qualified JGEBILLS (IISER Pune will shortlist based on the ranks of the students).

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.

Queries: In case of queries, please email biologyapplications@acads.iiserpune.ac.in 

PhD in Earth and Climate Science

The Earth and Climate Science program at the IISER Pune invites applications from highly-motivated students for admissions to Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program for the session January-2024.

Research Area (Potential Supervisor): 

A)Paleobiology and Marine Ecology (Devapriya Chattopadhyay)

Candidates with a strong Earth Science or Biology background and an interest in Paleobiology are encouraged to apply. Candidates with prior experience in Paleontological/Ecological/Taxonomic research and/or R-programming language would be preferred. The selected candidate is expected to contribute to a project under the broad theme of paleoecology or conservation paleobiology. 

B) Geochemistry (Gyana Ranjan Tripathy)

C) Biogeochemistry (Shreyas Mangave)

The selected candidate will work on  problems related to climate change.

D) Himalayan glaciers (Argha Banerjee)

Only candidates with a strong background in both undergraduate Physics and Maths may apply. Proficiency in Computer Programming is expected. The selected candidate will contribute to an Indo-Swiss collaborative project on field studies and modelling of debris-covered Himalayan glaciers. 

Minimum Eligibility:     

1. Students with minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in majoring subject) or a CGPA 6 out of 10 point scale (55% in aggregate or equivalent CGPA for SC/ST and PD candidates) in Master’s (or BS-MS) degree in Geology/ Applied Geology/Physics/Mathematics/Atmospheric Science/Climate Science/Engineering/Biology/Environmental Science, 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/ UGC-LS/ CSIR-LS/ or a valid* GATE/JEST score,

(b) INSPIRE-PhD fellowship (The candidate should be in possession of provisional selection letter at the time of interview),

*The score/rank MUST be valid at least till January 01, 2024.

OR,

1. 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 short-listed 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. 

For any admission related query please contact ecsphdselection@iiserpune.ac.in

Ph.D. Programme in Mathematics - January 2024

The Mathematics program at the IISER Pune invites applications from highly-motivated students for admissions to Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program for the session January-2024.

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 Ph.D. written exam in 2023 and shortlisted for NBHM Ph.D. interviews.
2. Qualified National Eligibility Test (NET) with valid* CSIR-JRF/UGC-JRF in Mathematics or Computer Science and Applications.
3. Valid* GATE rank (Rank up to 40 for unreserved category candidates, and up to 50 for reserved category candidates) in Mathematics or Computer Science and Information Technology.
4. 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.

Admission to PhD Program in Physics for the January 2024 Batch 

For the session starting January 2024, IISER Pune invites applications for the PhD program in Physics - in the following areas:

Condensed Matter Physics and Soft & Living matter Physics (Experimental, Computational and Theoretical)

Experimental High Energy Physics (data analysis and detector physics)

Eligibility Criteria 

The candidate should have a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in the majoring subject) or a CGPA of 6 on a 10 point scale (55% or equivalent CGPA in aggregate for SC, ST and PwD/VH candidates) in MSc or BTech/BE,

and 

the candidate should satisfy at least one among the following mandatory criteria: 

(a) Qualified National Eligibility Test (NET) with a score in the CSIR-JRF/UGC-JRF category, valid at the time of admissions in January  2024. 

OR

(b) Holds a rank equal to 500 or better (625 or better for candidates in the reserved categories) in GATE or JEST PhD Physics. This rank should be valid at the time of admissions in January 2024. 

OR

(c) Holds an INSPIRE-PhD fellowship (The candidate should possess a provisional selection letter for PhD fellowship at the time of the interview.)

OR

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

(Students currently in the final year of their post-graduate programs are welcome to apply. If  the candidate is shortlisted after the final interview a provisional admission will be offered. The final admission will be subject to the condition that all of the above eligibility criteria are satisfied.)

Note that additional criteria, beyond the above eligibility criteria, is likely to be imposed when shortlisting candidates at the interview stage. 

(applicants who appeared in the May 2023 or August 2023 round of interviews, are discouraged from applying again this year)

Interview 

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to appear for an interview to be conducted in-person. The final selection to the program will be based on the candidate's performance in the interview. 

Application

The online application link will be posted here by Oct 15, 2023. The last date for submitting the application is 5th November, 2023.

Further Information 

For more information about the PhD Physics program, please visit the following link http://www.iiserpune.ac.in/education/phd  

For information about the Physics department please visit https://www.iiserpune.ac.in/research/department/physics 

Any queries regarding admissions may be addressed to physicsphdselection@iiserpune.ac.in