Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune
Motto	Where Tomorrow’s Science Begins Today
Established	2006
Type	Public
Chairman	T. V. Ramakrishnan, FRS, FTWAS
Director	Krishna N. Ganesh, FTWAS
Academic staff	90+
Undergraduates	400
Doctoral students	100
Location	Pune, Maharashtra, India
Campus	98 acres
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), has 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. IISERs are destined to become Science Institutes of the highest caliber and reach the prestigious position in the global setting that IISc, IIMs and IITs presently enjoy.

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. The teaching classrooms, teaching laboratories and research laboratories are located at the Central and Western towers of the Sai Trinity Building, Pashan, Pune. The construction of the final campus has begun.

Objectives

• To create a world class institution for undergraduate and postgraduate education in science with an intellectually alive atmosphere of research.
• To create a unique research institution in the country in which education will be totally integrated with state-of-the-art research.
• To create a cadre of high calibre internationally well-known faculty members devoted to teaching as well as research in science.

Academic programs

• Integrated Master's (M.S.): Admission to this program is after 10+2 years of school training and is currently on the basis of performance in the IIT-JEE. Further, Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) scholars will also be considered for admission. 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. As from 2013 IISER, Pune will use JEE-Advanced test for admission in this program ,while admission by KVPY will continue as such.
• Doctoral Program (Ph.D.): Admission to the doctoral program is after a Master's degree in science. Besides the students of the Integrated Master's program, Postgraduate students with a Master's degree in science from other Universities/Institutes will also be admitted to the doctoral program.

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.

• Integrated Doctoral Program (Int. Ph.D.): Admission to this program is after a B.Sc. degree in any of the basic sciences. Students of this program start their course by attending their class with third year students of Dual Degree B.S.- M.S. course.

Departments and Centres

• Department of Biology:

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.

• Department of Chemistry:

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.

• Department of Physics:

Physics research at IISER-Pune currently covers the areas of Astrophysics, Non-linear Dynamics and Chaos, Particle Physics, Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Information Theory, Semiconductor Physics, Condensed Matter Physics and Statistical Physics.

• Department of Mathematics:

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.

• Centre for Integrative Studies (CIS):

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 intradisciplinary, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and trans-disciplinary levels

• Computing Facilities:

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.

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.

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 4 Mbit/s internet connection.

• Centres of Excellence:

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

• DBT Centre of Excellence in Epigenetics
• DST Unit on Nanoscience
• Max-Planck Partner Group in Quantum Field Theory
• Max-Planck Partner Group in Glyco-nanotechnology

Students Activities

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

• Aaroha [music club]
• Kalaa [arts club]
• Science Club
• Prutha[the green initiative]
• Disha
• Sports Club

Mimamsa is an inter-college science challenge conducted by the Science Club 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

• List of universities in India
• List of autonomous higher education institutes in India

References

http://www.iiserpune.ac.in

External links

• IISER Pune