Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune
Motto Where Tomorrow’s Science Begins Today
Type Public
Established 2006
Chairman T. V. Ramakrishnan, FRS, FTWAS
Director Krishna N. Ganesh, FTWAS
Academic staff
 90+[1]
Undergraduates 400[2]
100[3]
Location Pune, Maharashtra, India
Campus 98 acres[4]
Website www.iiserpune.ac.in

The Government of India, based on the recommendation of Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, through the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), established five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) (Hindi: भारतीय विज्ञान शिक्षण एवं अनुसंधान संस्थान) in 2006. These institutes are currently located in Kolkata, Pune, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram. IISERs are a unique initiative in science education in India in which teaching and education will be totally integrated with the state-of-the-art research nurturing both curiosity and creativity in an intellectually vibrant atmosphere of research.

Each IISER is an autonomous institution awarding its own Masters and Doctoral degrees. Students are encouraged to carry out research projects during the vacation periods in the first four years of their Masters programme in various research institutes outside IISER.[5]

The teaching classrooms, teaching laboratories and research laboratories are state of the art with an excellent research atmosphere with the facilities and standards second to none in India. The construction of the final campus has been completed.[6][7]

Objectives

Academic programs

  1. Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) Basic Science Stream: Students qualifying in SA (2012)/SX (2013)/SB (2013).
  2. Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) 2014: Students securing a place in the rank list of Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) for admission to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
  3. State and Central Boards: Those, who are eligible for INSPIRE scholarship by Department of Science and Technology (DST) on the basis of their aggregate scores in class XII may be considered for admission after clearing an aptitude test.

The first two years of the 5-year programme involves coursework in all subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Humanities and Interdisciplinary courses). For the next two years, the students choose courses across subjects, as per their liking. The final year is spent on a research project.

View of one of the upcoming nine-storey hostel blocks from the current Hall of Residence 4 (HR-4) lawns.

The program will involve course work, a qualifying examination, a state-of-the-art seminar, thesis work, open seminar and a thesis examination, leading to the award of a PhD degree. The quantum of course work will vary depending on the background of the student. Besides individual research, students will be involved in several professional activities such as seminars, workshops, presentations and review meetings. All doctoral students will assist faculty members in teaching during the course of the doctoral program.

Departments and Centres

Research in Biology at IISER-Pune currently encompasses both theoretical and experimental approaches to the broad areas of System Biology, Ecology and Population Dynamics, Cancer Biology, Neurobiology, Epigenetics and Gene-environment interactions.

IISER-Pune's Chemistry department offers research opportunities in a wide range of interest from traditional Physical, Inorganic, Organic, Organometallic Chemistry to new frontiers of Chemical Biology, Material Research and Nano Science.

It is a new department started two years back. It focuses mainly on geophysics, geology and climate science. this department has faculties carrying out research in both computational and experimental aspects.

Physics research at IISER-Pune currently covers the areas of:

  1. Astronomy and Astrophysics
  2. Atomic Physics
  3. Ultracold Atoms
  4. Quantum Optics
  5. Complex Systems and Nonlinear Dynamics
  6. Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics
  7. Gravitation
  8. Quantum Field Theory and String Theory
  9. Experimental High Energy Physics
  10. Nanoscience and Nanomaterials
  11. NMR
  12. Quantum Emulation and Quantum Information
  13. Plasmonics and Photonics
  14. "Soft" Condensed Matter Physics.

The department has research groups in Number Theory, Finite Group Theory, Lie Algebras, Representation Theory, Algebraic Geometry, Knot Theory, Cryptography, Algorithms, Relativity and String Theory.

While the institute’s thrust is on science education and research, the presence of humanities and social sciences serves profoundly to inculcate a much-needed augmentation of vision. Alongside research in any scientific discipline, it is crucial simultaneously to examine accepted beliefs regarding the processes and implications of this research through the lens of historical, philosophical, sociological, anthropological, psychological, economic, socio-cultural, political, literary, and artistic contexts. Such an approach is particularly beneficial for facilitating science students to understand issues from multiple perspectives. Further, the advantages of such an exercise are vital to more than just the practice of science; conversations across fields are enriching for all involved. Indeed, while allowing space for rigorous research within disciplinary boundaries, the program aims to foster interesting intersections and questions.

The department has faculty members with research interests in architecture, astronomy, ethno-musicology, history of science, linguistics, literature, numismatics, and Sanskrit.

The Centre for Integrative Studies (CIS) pursues integration of knowledge, with special emphasis on scientific and mathematical inquiries. By integration, they mean connecting and unifying the apparently disconnected and fragmented knowledge, at the intra-disciplinary, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and trans-disciplinary levels.

  1. The computing facility at IISER, Pune caters to all the students, faculty and staff. A back-bone server-class computer running the Linux operating system can be accessed from any terminal on the local area network. The central server is thus connected with all the computers in the student computer lab through LAN.
  2. High Performance Cluster: IISER, Pune also houses a High Performance Cluster (HPC) boasting a 10 TB ultra-fast HDD, and sixty four nodes with 18 GB RAM per node. The faculty and research students use the HPC to solve real-life problems in the fields of biology, chemistry, materials science, nano-science, and computational physics.
  3. Network: The institute LAN consists of both wired and wireless components, and connects all computers in the institute. Individual laptops can be connected through the secure Wi-fi network. All computers in the institute are connected to a 155 Mbit/s & 1 G Mbit/s internet connection.

IISER-Pune also houses following advanced research centres/ centres of excellence:

Student Activities

The majority of the student activities at IISER-P are conducted by the various clubs listed below.[17]

Mimamsa is an inter-college science challenge conducted solely by the students of IISER-P. The aim of the organizers is to make it the most conceptually challenging competition at this level in the country. It is a two-stage affair. The first stage is a written exam with 60 subjective questions from all disciplines of science. The top four colleges selected through this round move into the finals.

All the clubs were formed in the academic year 2008-09, except for the science club (which is a year older). In 2009, all the clubs got together to organize Karavaan 2009, the Inter-IISER Cultural Fest. In 2011, the students of the 2009 and 2010 batch organized Scifest '11.

There is also a very active SPIC MACAY sub-chapter, which organizes events jointly with National Chemical Laboratory, and the SPIC MACAY Pune Chapter.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Faculty". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  2. ↑ "MS Students". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  3. ↑ "Ph.D. Students". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  4. ↑ "Location". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  5. ↑ "MS-programme info". MSprogramme. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  6. ↑ "Campus Info". Campus. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  7. ↑ "How to reach IISER, Pune". Directions. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  8. ↑ "IISER-admissions". Archived from the original on 12 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "Biology Division". Biology. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  10. ↑ "Chemistry division". Chemistry. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  11. ↑ "Physics Division". Climate and Earth science. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  12. ↑ "Physics Division". Physics. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  13. ↑ "Mathematics Division". Mathematics. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  14. ↑ "Department of Humanities and Social Sciences".
  15. ↑ "CIS". CIS. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  16. ↑ "Computing Facilities at IISER,Pune". Computing. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  17. ↑ "Institute intranet guide to student organisations.". Student organisations. Retrieved 15 February 2012.

External links

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