Ph.D. Admissions - January 2021
Applications are invited from highly motivated students for admission to the Ph.D. programme of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER TVM) in the Schools of Biological (SoB), Chemical (SoC), and Physical (SoP) Sciences for the session starting from January 2021, i.e., Vasanth 2021 semester. Candidates are required to apply through the online portal only. The online application portal will be open from 01/11/2020 at http://appserv.iisertvm.ac.in/phd/
Eligibility Criteria
-
7.5 CGPA in 10-point scale (or first class equivalent) or first class Master’s degree in relevant areas as declared by the respective University.
BE/BTech degree in relevant areas is admissible for selected research areas in School of Physics (see Research Areas)
- The candidate must have qualified either of the following examinations: CSIR-UGC, UGC-NET JRF and GATE with validity as of January 2021. Candidates with DST-INSPIRE fellowship or fellowship through any other national-level examinations as mentioned below.
BS-MS Students from any of the IISERs with CGPA 8 or above on a 10 point scale are exempted from national level eligibility test related criteria.
| School |
Relevant Areas |
Eligibility Requirements |
| Biological Sciences |
Biological Sciences/ Mathematics/ Bioinformatics/Agricultural Sciences/ Veterinary Sciences or a Bachelor Degree in Medicine (MBBS)
|
• Eligibility Criteria 1
AND
• Eligibility Criteria 2
OR
DBT-JRF (Category I), ICMR-JRF
Note: Only candidates whose ranks make them eligible to avail Category I DBT-Junior Research Fellowships tenable at any university/institution in India. Fellowships restricted to join DBT or ICMR-sponsored projects are not eligible.
OR
GATE (XL and BT only)
Note: GATE (XL) or GATE (BT) qualified candidates will be considered only for Bioinformatics.
OR
JGEEBILS (GS-2020)
|
|
• #JGEEBILS and GATE (XL and BT only) candidates may be further shortlisted by IISER TVM Ph.D. applications shortlisting committee based on the marks/score.
|
| Chemical Sciences |
Chemical Sciences |
• Eligibility Criteria 1
AND
• Eligibility Criteria 2
|
| Physical Sciences |
Physical Sciences/Material Science/ Engineering areas closely related to the research areas of School of Physics, IISER TVM
|
• Eligibility Criteria 1 *
AND
• Eligibility Criteria 2
OR
JEST 2020 (Physics)
* Students from BE/BTech with 7.5 CGPA or first class degree as declared by the respective University will be considered for some specific research areas marked with an asterisk.
|
In situations where no University declaration exists about first class, UGC regulations on eligibility criteria will be followed.
Research Areas
| School |
Areas |
| Biological Sciences |
- Bioinformatics
- Virology
- Biophysics
- Genetics
- Genomics
- Molecular Biology
- Structural Molecular Biology
- Stem cell and Developmental Biology
- Neurobiology
|
| Chemical Sciences |
- Synthetic Methods for Organic Synthesis, Asymmetric Catalysis, and C-H Activation/Functionalization
- Materials Chemistry / Energy Storage -Batteries-Supercapacitors / Porous Materials-Gas Separation-Membranes / Luminescent MOFs
- Sustainable Organic Synthesis: Transition Metal-based Organometallic Catalysis, Photocatalysis, Metal-Free Coupling Reactions
- Macrocycles/Planar Antiaromatic Cyclic Systems/ Extended pi-Conjugated Systems / Near-Infrared Dyes
- Photochemistry and Photophysics and Light-Matters Interaction at Nanoscale, time-resolved Spectroscopy
- Supramolecular chemistry, Organic Synthesis, Medicinal Chemistry
- Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Photochemistry and Photophysics, Crystal Engineering
- Electrocatalysis, Kinetic and mechanistic study of the electrochemical reduction of oxygen in PEM fuel cells
- Asymmetric Total Synthesis, Asymmetric Catalysis, Development of New Methodologies and Medicinal Chemistry
- Asymmetric Catalysis and Cross-Coupling Reactions
- Supramolecular Chemistry: Host-guest chemistry, molecular switches and machines, and out of equilibrium self-assembly; Supramolecular catalysis
- Metal nanocluster, Cluster-assembled materials, inorganic-organic hybrid materials and their energy related applications
- Organic Synthesis Driven by Photoredox Catalysis, Metallo-photoredox Catalysis
- Theoretical and computational chemistry
|
| Physical Sciences |
- Magnetic and Superconducting Materials
- Light Sheet Microscopy (LSM) or Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM); Design and development of photoacoustic imaging (PAI) system*
- Hybrid Nanostructures for Energy Related Applications
- Terahertz Spectroscopy of Condensed Matter Systems
- Organic, Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Semiconductors and Devices, Especially Solar Cells
- Semiconductor qubits, Quantum-transport*
- 2D materials for Sensors and Energy*
- Functional materials engineering for magnetoelectric applications*
- High temperature superconductivity, physics at nano-scale*
- Advanced semiconductor devices for power / energy conversion*
- Nonlinear optics, frequency combs, microwave photonics
* BE/BTech degree is also admissible for these research topics
|
Selection Procedure
The shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend a written test/interview at IISER TVM. The final selection of the candidates will solely be based on the performance in the interview.
In the School of Biology, there will be two rounds of interviews. In case of a high turnout of candidates, an entrance exam will be conducted (based on Master’s-level Biology questions for 70% marks and 12th-level Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry questions for 30%) on the first day of interviews.
Important Dates
| Online application portal opened from |
01/11/2020 |
| Last date for receipt of online applications |
20/11/2020 |
| Tentative Interview Dates |
| Biological Sciences |
09 - 11 December 2020 |
| Chemical Sciences |
10 - 11 December 2020 |
| Physical Sciences |
07 - 08 December 2020 |
| Reporting time for all candidates |
8.30 AM on the first day of the interview |
| Venue |
IISER TVM, Vithura Campus
OR
Online Mode
|
NB: Hostel accommodation will be available in the campus for candidates only on request in advance if physical presence is mandatory.
Application Procedure
- Applicants should complete the online application form at the url: http://appserv.iisertvm.ac.in/phd
- Only applications complete in all respects would be considered. Do not forget to click the “Submit” button after completing your application.
- Applicants will also be prompted to upload all the supporting documents online.
- Applicants should provide Name/Affiliation/Contact number and Email addresses of two referees in the application form.
- Applicants belonging to GE/OBC and SC/ST/PH categories are required to make a payment of Rs. 500/- and Rs. 250/-, respectively, as a processing fee online at: https://www.onlinesbi.sbi/sbicollect/icollecthome.htm
- On submission of the online application form, the applicants will receive an acknowledgment email with a unique application number.
- Applicants are NOT required to post a hard copy of the application to IISER TVM.
- In case of any application-related queries, please contact the Ph.D. coordinator by email at: phdprogramme@iisertvm.ac.in . Any other mode of communication will not be entertained.
- Mere fulfilment of the eligibility criteria does not entitle a candidate to be called for the written test and/or interview.
For the School of Biology, it is mandatory for all the candidates to submit a short research proposal of 300-400 words, which should clearly state a research problem you find interesting to address and how you approach towards solving this. While applying online, please upload this proposal under the section "Statement of Purpose". Please note the proposal does not need to be related to the research ongoing at the School of Biology, IISER TVM. The proposal will be used to evaluate your scientific aptitude and will be a major criterion for short-listing candidates for the interview.
Important points
- Relaxation for reserved categories to the eligibility criteria will be applicable as per Government of India rules.
- Candidates who meet minimum eligibility criteria for obtaining INSPIRE Ph.D. fellowship as per the DST guidelines can also apply. In the event of being shortlisted, and successfully cleared in the interview, the candidate shall be provisionally admitted for the Ph.D. program. The admission shall be cancelled, if the candidate cannot submit necessary documents for INSPIRE Ph.D. fellowship at the time of registration.
