Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram

Type	Public
Established	2008[1]
Dean	Prof. M. P. Rajan, Dr. Ramesh Chandra Nath, Dr. Hema Somanathan, Dr. Anil Shaji[2]
Director	Prof. V. Ramakrishnan (Current),[3] Prof. Eluvathingal Devassy Jemmis (Founder) [4]
Academic staff	40+[5]
Students	600+
Postgraduates	400+[6]
Doctoral students	199 (171 PhD[7] + 28 IPhD[8])
Location	Vithura (Permanent) Thiruvananthapuram (Transitional), Kerala, India
Campus	200 acres[1]
Website	www.iisertvm.ac.in

The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram (IISER Thiruvananthapuram or IISER-TVM) is one of seven IISERs, institutes established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

The institute awards five-year integrated Master of Science degrees in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. There are facilities for doing research in those areas leading to the award of PhD.

IISER-TVM is located at the foothills of the Ponmudi hills of the Western Ghats, about 50 km from Thiruvananthapuram.^[9][10] There are six other IISERs in India, namely IISER Bhopal, IISER Kolkata, IISER Mohali, IISER Pune, IISER Tirupati and IISER Berhampur.

Background

Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) were created in 2006 through a proclamation of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, under the category of institutes of national importance, to promote quality education and research in basic sciences. Soon after the announcement, two of these institutes at Pune and Kolkata, respectively, were started in 2006. This was followed by an institute at Mohali (2007) and at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram in 2008.^[11] Each IISER is a degree granting autonomous institution with a prime focus to integrate science education and research. IISERs are destined to become Science Institutes of the highest caliber and reach the prestigious position in the global setting that IISc, IIMs, IITs and NITs presently enjoy.

Administration

The institute is administered by a Board of Governors with Tessy Thomas as Chairperson, a 25-member Senate and the Director, V. Ramakrishnan.^[12][13] The Deans are M. P. Rajan (Academics), Ramesh Chandra Nath (Students Affairs), Hema Somanathan (Research and Development) and Anil Shaji (Planning and Development).^[2]

Academic Programs

• Integrated Master's (M.S.): Admission to this program is through the following channels:

1. Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) Basic Science Stream: Students qualifying in SA (2012)/SX (2013)/SB (2013).
2. Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced): 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. Currently done in co-ordination with the other IISERs through a Joint Admission Program.^[14]

The first two years of the 5-year program 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.^[15]

• 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. 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.^[16]

Departments

Notable achievements

• The Gravitational Wave Group at the School of Physics (part of the Indian Initiative in Gravitational-wave Observations (IndIGO) comprising scientists from nine institutions working under the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC)), IISER TVM also contributed to historic discovery of gravitational waves.^[21][22]
• IISER TVM students builds an affordable radio telescope.^[23][24]

Conferences and Workshops

• Chromosome Stability 2016 ^[25]
• All India Cell Biology Conference ^[26]
• Cryo Electron Microscopy and 3D Image Processing of Macromolecular Assemblies and Cellular Tomography (CEM3DIP)^[27]
• Workshop on High Performance Scientific Computing^[28]
• International Symposium on Clusters, Cluster-Assemblies and Nanomaterials (ISCAN)^[29]
• Indo-UK Workshop on Stochastic Partial Differential Equations and Applications^[30]
• 8th Asian Photochemistry Conference 2014 ^[31]
• GW@ASI2014: Satellite workshop on Gravitational Wave Astronomy at the ASI Meeting ^[32]

Rankings

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram was ranked 58 in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in overall ranking in 2018.^[33]

See also

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

References

External links

• Official website