Admissions | Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research

JNCASR has a bright and diverse student body. At present, there are 291 students registered in the various academic programmes of the Centre. While the majority of these students are pursuing Ph. D. degree, we also have students enrolled in our Integrated Ph. D., M. S. / M. S. (Engg.) programmes. The student population at JNCASR is drawn from across the length and breadth of the country; in addition, we frequently have foreign students visiting the Centre under various exchange programmes.

The majority of new students joining the Centre during the August semester each year are admitted, based on their performance in interviews carried out in the early summer. Certain programmes also consider admitting students halfway through the academic year (i.e., at the start of the January semester). In order to be eligible for consideration in these interviews, students have to meet various academic criteria, as specified under the various degree programmes listed in the menu page. Admission in these programmes is fairly competitive.

All students who are admitted to the Centre’s programmes receive stipends that are more than adequate to cover their tuition and living expenses, including hostel fees, etc

We generally expect students to take less than five years to complete a regular Ph. D. programme. Students who are admitted to the Integrated Ph. D. programme also get an M. S. degree, typically three years into their programme of study.

In addition to carrying out research, students take a combination of required and elective courses. The majority of courses are held on-campus, and taught by the Centre’s faculty members. However, students can also choose to attend a few courses at other scientific institutes in the Bangalore area. In addition to regular academic courses, there are also seminar courses, and we have recently introduced a course on scientific writing. After completing two years in their Ph. D. programmes, students have to pass an oral comprehensive examination, where they present and are quizzed about their research, as well as the material covered in their coursework.

Since 2002, the Centre is recognized as a “Deemed to be University” by the University Grants Commission, and students’ degrees are awarded directly by JNCASR. Since the inception of the Centre, 324 degrees have been awarded; these include 178Ph. D.’s, 87 M. S. degrees (Integrated Ph. D.), 55 M. S. (Engg.) and 4 M. Sc. (by research - Biological Sciences).

Students who are alumni of the Centre have gone on to enjoy successful academic careers, and are currently spread out across the world.

Research Programmes
Interdisciplinary research interests are also encouraged
Chemistry and Physics of Materials Unit
For more details follow the link (CPMU)
The core theme of research is the study of novel and functional materials. Experimental and computational approches are employed to understand physical and chemical phenomena, at the atomic and molecular level.

Research Areas:
Research Areas: Synthesis, structural, electrical, and magnetic properties of nanomaterials, cluster beams, interfaces, colossal magnetoresistive oxides, thin films, gas sensors, and novel mesoporous materials. Molecular electronics using conducting polymers, organic electronic devices, biophotonics, optical spectroscopy, materials under high pressure. Molecular simulations of green solvents, materials, and protein solutions.

State-of-the-art facilities to conduct experimental and computational research are available. Some of these include a floating zone furnace, atomic force, scanning tunneling microscopes, transmission and scanning electron microscopes, high-speed optoelectronic lab, diamond anvil cell to attain pressures up to 30 GPa, 15 Tesla superconducting magnet, single crystal and powder xray diffractometers, infra-red, visible, Raman and Brillouin spectrometers, and Beowulf parallel computers for computational research.

Engineering Mechanics Unit
For more details follow the link (EMU)
Researchers at the Engineering Mechanics Unit are now occupied in one or more of these absorbing research activities: Observing in our wind tunnel how an insect flies and why this is different from the flight of an aircraft; Analysing how different flows undergo a transition from laminar to turbulence, and why small changes in some quantities have a huge effect on the answers. We address this problem in aerospace, chemical (non-Newtonian, multiphase) and biological (e.g. blood) flows; Asking why certain rocks have particular formation patterns; Computing micro and nanoscale flows, to find out why they are different from the flows we see everyday; Understanding more about vortex dynamics, nonlinear dynamics and chaos; Finding out how flows of particulate matter (such as sand) are different from the flow of liquids; Understanding air-flow and temperature patterns in the Earth's atmosphere near the ground and their effect on weather; Seeking patterns or order that may be present in India's monsoon rainfall, or other atmospheric variables; Exploring whether the development of turbulent shear flows is governed by stability considerations; computing how radiation and turbulence may interact with each other in the lowest layers of the atmosphere at night.

A prospective student has a choice of these areas as a future research topic, or even suggest one of his/her own, if feasible.

Evolutionary and Integrative Biology Unit
For more details follow the link (EIBU)

1. How does larval density interact with other aspects of the ecology in shaping the evolution of competitive ability in fruitflies?

2. How do life history evolution and sexual selection interact in shaping male-female coevolution and conflict?

3. How do patterns of resource availability influence animal social groupings?

4. How does genetic relatedness between individuals affect associations and interactions in Asian elephant?

These are some of the questions we are addressing, using a combination of approaches (laboratory experiments, computer simulations, field studies) and a range of techniques from quantitative genetics, phenomics, molecular population genetics, behaviour studies, physiology, ecology, mathematics and statistics. Our experimental work involves fruit flies and field studies are carried out on elephants in the Western Ghats. Prospective students or postdocs who would like to be involved in top-of-the-line research in experimental evolution, population ecology, and animal behaviour, especially socio ecology, are most welcome to contact us.

International Centre for Materials Science
For more details follow the link (ICMS)

Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit
For more details follow the link (MBGU)
Research in the Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit is in diverse areas of biology bound by the common thread of biomedical applications. The current research areas fall into the categories of Infectious Diseases, Cell Cycle, Chromatin organization and Transcription Regulation, Developmental Biology and Genetics.

Students have the opportunity to use approaches involving molecular biology and biochemistry, genetics, modern cell and developmental biology and the most recent genomics approaches.

New Chemistry Unit
For more details follow the link (NCU)
This Unit works on interdisciplinary aspects of chemical science. The most important areas that the Unit concentrates on is chemical biology and interfaces of Chemical Science with materials. The Unit has excellent facilities for experimental work as well as computational and theoretical studies.

The Unit takes students desirous of pursuing research for the Ph.D. degree.

Neuro Sciences Unit
For more details follow the link (NSU)
Currently, the research interests of the Unit include the study of synaptic function and its relationship with Intellectual Disability, neurogenetics of behavior in Drosophila, molecular and cellular mechanisms of human brain/mind disorders, biomaterials for interfacing sensory organs with soft analog devices and molecular neuro-oncology. The diversity in individual research themes of the faculty also reflect the widely differing types of scientific approaches and methodologies used in understanding how the nervous system functions and determine various behaviours of organisms, including humans.

Theoretical Sciences Unit
For more details follow the link (TSU)
Statistical Mechanics, Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science

Condensed matter systems present many challenging problems of both fundamental and technological interest. The research in the Theoretical Sciences Unit employs a combination of approaches to tackle these problems, including quantum many body theory, electronic structure calculations, and statistical mechanics. We combine analytical calculations with extensive state-of-the-art computation, using both ab initio and empirical models.

The topics that we are currently studying include: surface physics; ferroelectrics and multi-ferroics; structural phase transitions; dilute magnetic semiconductors; stability, atomic and electronic structure of nanoclusters and nano-wires; slow dynamics in supercooled liquids, the glass transition, liquid-liquid transitions, kinetics of phase transformation, kinetics and thermodynamics of biomolecular systems; nonlinear optics; quantum magnetism in low dimensions; electrical transport in nanostructures and electron and proton transfer in biological systems.