IISER Thiruvananthapuram (TVM) PhD Admission 2025 (Aug)

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram invites applications for admission to the PhD Programmes for the academic session Varsha 2025 commencing in Aug 2025.

Eligibility Criteria

General Eligibility Criteria

1. 6.5 CGPA on a 10-point scale (or first-class equivalent) or first class in Master’s program in a relevant discipline as declared by the respective university for General/OBC-NCL candidates and a minimum of 50% marks (or a CGPA of 5.5 in the 10-point scale) for SC/ST and PwD candidates. (BE/BTech degree in relevant specialization is admissible for select areas of research in the School of Physics (see Research Areas))
2. The candidate must have qualified at least one of the following examinations national level: CSIR-UGC NET or UGC NET (Category I or II or III), GATE and other national-level examinations as specified in the document with validity as on 01 August 2025. (see School specific Eligibility Criteria for other national-level examinations considered for the selection).
3. BS-MS/MSc/Integrated MSc students from any of the IISERs/IITs/IISc with a CGPA of 8 or above on a 10-point scale are exempted from national level test eligibility related criteria.

Relaxation for reserved categories to the eligibility criteria will be applicable as per Government of India rules.

Subject Wise Eligibility Criteria

SCHOOL	RELEVANT AREAS	ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Biological Sciences	Biological Sciences/Chemical Sciences/Physical Sciences/ Mathematics/ Bioinformatics/ Agricultural Sciences/ Veterinary Sciences or a Bachelor Degree in Medicine (MBBS).	(General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2) OR General Eligibility 3 OR General Eligibility 1 with one of the following- DBT-JRF (Category I)/ICMR-JRF: Only candidates whose fellowships are tenable at IISER TVM are eligible. GATE (EY)*: Will be considered only for Ecology/ Evolution/Behaviour. GATE (XL/BT/PH)*: Will be considered only for Bioinformatics/Computational Biology/Theoretical Biology NBHM-JRF: Will be considered only for Bioinformatics/ Computational Biology/Theoretical Biology JGEEBILS (GS-2025)* JEST (Physics)* qualified candidates will be considered only for Computational Biology /Theoretical Biology/ Biophysics/Structural Biology * Depending on the number of applications, a cut-off based on marks/score maybe be imposed to shortlist these candidates
Chemical Sciences	Chemical Sciences	(General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2) OR General Eligibility 3
Mathematical Sciences	Mathematics/Statistics/ Engineering/ Relevant area of science	(General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2/NBHM Doctoral Scholarship with a valid certificate as on 01 August 2025) OR General Eligibility 3
Physical Sciences	Physical Sciences/Material Science/ Engineering areas closely related to the research areas of School of Physics, IISER TVM	(General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)/ JEST 2025 (Physics)) OR General Eligibility 3 For the * marked research areas listed below BE/BTech candidates are eligible to apply.
Data Sciences	Computer Science/Data Science/Statistics/ Mathematics/Information Technology/Electronics and Communication Engineering or Engineering areas closely related to the research areas of School of Data Science, IISER TVM.	(General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2/ JEST 2025 (Theoretical Computer Science)) OR General Eligibility 3
Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences	MSc or MTech in Marine sciences/Chemistry/Physics/ Biology/Mathematics/Geology/Applied Geology/Earth Science/ Atmospheric Science/Meteorology/Climate Science/Oceanography/Water Resources/ Hydrology Ecology/Agriculture/Environment Science. BE/BTech/Engineering areas closely related to the research areas of School of Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences, IISER TVM	(General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2/DBT-JRF/ICAR-JRF/GATE/ JGEEBILS/JEST or equivalent) OR General Eligibility 3
CAMRIE	See the relevant section in “School and Centre-wise Research Areas Available for PhD Positions” below.	(General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2/JEST 2025/DBT-JRF/ JGEEBILS/GATE) OR General Eligibility 3
CHPC	See the relevant section in “School and Centre-wise Research Areas Available for PhD Positions” below.	(General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2) OR General Eligibility 3

Research Areas

Biological Sciences

• Biophysics and Biochemistry
• Cell and Molecular Biology
• Ecology & Evolution
• Genetics and Development
• Infection and Immunity
• Host-Pathogen Interaction
• Neurobiology
• Plant Biology
• Theoretical & Computational Biology

Chemical Sciences

• Bio-inorganic Chemistry, Coordination Chemistry
• Biomaterials, Nanoparticles-Immune Cells Interactions
• p-Block Chemistry: Bond Activation, Catalysis
• Catalysis for Sustainable Organic Synthesis
• Catalysis, Organic Synthesis, Coupling Reactions
• Electrocatalysis for Energy Conversion and Biomass Valorisation
• Main Group Chemistry and Homogeneous Catalysis
• Macrocycles Synthesis for Chemical Sensors and Helically chiral Molecular Systems
• Materials Chemistry for Sustainable Energy
• Medicinal chemistry, Organic synthesis, Computational drug, discovery, Chemical biology
• Metabolic chemistry, Mass spectrometry, Chemical biology, Organic chemistry
• d-Block Organometallic Chemistry, Small molecule activation, development of molecular catalysts for hydrogenation
• Natural Products Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Asymmetric Catalysis and Synthesis
• Radical Chemistry in Organic Synthesis
• NMR Spectroscopy, Biochemistry, Biophysics
• Photochemistry and Photophysics; Crystalline Organic Materials
• Quantum Cluster, Cluster-Assembly and Metal-Organic Framework Materials
• Semiconductor Quantum Dots, Metal Nanoparticle, Light-Induced Processes
• Soft-Materials and Interfaces, Charge Transport in Bio/Molecular Systems
• Supramolecular Chemistry, DNA nanotechnology, Cancer therapy
• Supramolecular Chemistry, Host-Guest Chemistry, Molecular Switches and Machines
• Supramolecular Chemistry, Polymers, Organic Chemistry
• Catalysis and Synthetic Methods for Organic Synthesis, C–H Functionalization, and Asymmetric Synthesis
• Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry, Computational Materials Science
• Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (Non-Quantum), Chemical Physics, biological physics
• Ultrafast Nonlinear Spectroscopy

Data Sciences

• Machine/Deep Learning, 5G/6G Networking and Communication, Edge/Cloud Orchestration, Internet-of-Things, Distributed Machine/Deep Learning (Federated and Gossip Learning), Smart Applications
• Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning B5G/6G Wireless Networking and Communication, Network Slicing, Edge/Fog/ Cloud computing, Internet-of-Things, Next generation intelligent transportation system, Federated-Sparse Learning, Drone and vehicular Communication Network
• Deep Generative Machine Learning, Biomedical/Clinical Data Science, Multi-model data integration, Manifold learning, Deep Reinforcement Learning
• Dependence modelling using Copula, Mathematical Theory of Reliability, Stochastic Degradation modelling, Applied Statistics
• Design and analysis of Cluster Randomized Trials, Survival Analysis, Reliability Theory, Applied Statistics
• Computer Vision, Deep Learning applications to Medical Imaging, Computational Imaging, Biomedical Data Science, Spatial Data Science
• Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Emotion Recognition, Intelligent Systems, Image Processing, Signal Processing, and Classification Systems Using Machine Learning Models
• Theoretical Computer Science: Algorithms and Complexity, Graph Algorithms, Graph Theory and Combinatorics

Mathematical Sciences

• Algebra and Geometry: Commutative Algebra, Algebraic Geometry, Differential Geometry, Category Theory.
• Applied and Computational Mathematics: Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Optimization and Optimal Control of PDEs, Mathematical Biology, Financial Engineering, Data Science and Machine Learning
• Analysis and Applied Analysis: Complex Dynamics and Ergodic Theory, Linear Algebra and Matrix Analysis, Functional Analysis, Harmonic Analysis (Theory and Computational), Nonlinear Analysis, Elliptic Partial Differential Equations

Physical Sciences

Experimental Physics

• Supercapacitors, Solid-state lithium batteries, Atomically thin layered nanomaterials for energy conversion (*)
• Superconductivity, quantum materials, energy materials
• Physics of semiconductor devices (solar cells, light emitting diodes, transistors, memory, bioelectronic) based on quantum/Organic/perovskite/2D materials using various optical and electrical spectroscopy techniques.
• Ultrafast Optical Spectroscopy of 2D Nano-materials
• Nonlinear optics, frequency combs, microwave photonics, Photonic quantum computing
• Biomedical Instrumentation and Imaging, Development of Light Sheet Microscopy (LSM) or Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM) imaging system; Development of photacoustic imaging (PAI) system – both microscopy and tomography (*)
• Sustainable neuromorphic electronics (*)
• Advanced semiconductor devices for power / energyconversion (*)
• Quantum materials (Topological materials and Van de Waals hetero-structures), Spintonics (Multiferroics) and Device Physics (*)
• Ultrafast molecular dynamics, Generation of attosecond pulse train. (*)
• Quantum dot spin-qubits, 2D superconducting circuits (*)
• Metasurfaces for nanoscale light-matter interaction and light beam shaping , design, fabrication, and optical characterization.
• Microthermoelectric and nano-sensor devices

Theoretical Physics

• Condensed matter theory: Quantum materials, Magnetism and Spintronics
• Beyond Standard Model of Particle Physics, Baryon Number Violation, Dark Matter
• Statistical field theory, Non-equilibrium physics
• Theoretical cosmology and Analysis of Cosmological and Astrophysical datasets
• Beyond the standard model of particle physics, Colliderphenomenology
• Quantum information theory, Quantum materials (theory) and Quantum limited sending and metrology

BE/BTech candidates are eligible for selected areas marked with *

Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences

• Hydrology and flood Modelling, Atmospheric/Climate Modelling
• Tropical meteorology and Monsoon Dynamics
• Atmospheric aerosols, Atmospheric propagation and boundary layer
• Cloud Physics
• Igneous petrology and Geochemistry
• Structural geology, rheology, tectonics
• Geochemistry, Paleoclimatic reconstruction
• Stable isotope tracers in precipitation
• Hydro-geochemistry,Tracing contamination

CAMRIE (Centre of Advanced Materials Research with International Engagement)

Research areas	Relevant Areas
Photochemistry, Molecular Spectroscopy	MSc in Chemistry
Biomaterials, Nanomaterials-Immune cells interactions, Antimicrobial Coatings	MSc in Chemistry/Biomedical Engineering or Biotechnology
Physical Organic Chemistry	MSc in Chemistry
Light-matter Interactions at Nanoscale, Semiconductor Quantum Materials	MSc in Chemistry/Physics
Supercapacitors, Solid-state Lithium batteries	MSc in Chemistry/Physics
Ultrafast electronic and vibrational spectroscopy	MSc in Chemistry/Physics
Soft materials & Interfaces, Charge Transport in Bio-Molecular systems	MSc in Chemistry
Quantum Mechanics	MSc in Physics

CHPC Centre of High-Performance Computing

Research areas	Relevant Areas
Quantum information theory and quantum computing	MSc in Physics
Quantum Materials and Spintronics	MSc in Physics
Bioinformatics, NGS analysis	MSc in Bioinformatics/Computational Biology
Theoretical and Computational Chemical Physics and Softmatter biological physics	MSc in Chemistry/Physics/Biophysics/Computational Biology; Experience in theoretical physical chemistry/soft matter physics/biophysics is preferred. Background and experience in numerical techniques and computations is a plus.
Bioinformatics, Computational Biology	MSc in Bioinformatics/Computational Biology
Quantum Materials, Magnetism and spintronics	MSc in Physics
Computational and Experimental Structural Biology:	MSc/MS/MTech in Biological Sciences/Chemical Sciences/Physical Sciences/Mathematical Sciences/Biochemistry/Bioinformatics/Computational Biology/Pharmacology/Biotechnology (or other related fields for eg. Industrial Biotechnology/Biopharmaceutical technology/Food technology)/(Computer Science/Mathematics and computing (with students who have taken elective courses particularly related to Drug Discovery/Bioinformatics/image processing)/Electronics and Communication Engineering (with specialization in image processing)/Engineering Physics. Candidates with 4 years BE/BTech/Engineering degree in similar fields are also eligible to apply. Candidate with good aptitude to work on protein structure, molecular modelling, in silico structure based drug design including AI based methods, bioinformatics, computational biology, molecular dynamic simulations. Digital signal Processing of single particle cryoEM and Protein Crystallography data to obtain 3 dimensional structural information of biological macromolecules (Proteins), its assemblies and complex with DNA/novel therapeutic compounds targeting pathogenic infectious disease and anti microbial resistance. We are particularly interested in students who have carried out original research during their undergraduate/postgraduate studies and have competence in using Linux environments and programming (such as shell scripting, AWK, Perl, C/C++/python etc).
Numerical Analysis of Partial Differential Equations	MSc/MTech in Mathematics/Data Science with interest in Analysis, PDEs, Numerical methods or Scientific computing
Computational Fluid Dynamics, Numerical methods for PDEs, HPC for Computational Biology of the Heart.	MSc/MTech in Mathematics/Data Science/Biomedical engineering. Background in PDEs, Numerical methods, Scientific computing, and/or Computational biology is preferred.
BioPhysics, Computational Biology, Theoretical Biology	MSc/MTech in Physics or Mathematics

Application Procedure

• Applicants should complete the online application form at the url: ( https://admissions.iisertvm.ac.in/phd/index.php/applicant/register/17 ).
• 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.
• On submission of the online application form, the applicants will receive an acknowledgement 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 interview.

Selection Process

Biological Sciences

It is mandatory for a candidate to submit a short “Statement of Purpose” of 300-400 words, based on a research area the candidate finds interesting. While applying online, the proposal has to be uploaded under the section “Statement of Purpose (SOP)”. The proposal need not be related to the research ongoing at the School of Biology, IISER TVM. Short-listed candidates will have to appear for interviews conducted by IISER TVM in hybrid mode. There will be two rounds of interviews. The first round of interviews will be conducted online. Candidates who are shortlisted further for the final round of interviews will have to appear in person at IISER TVM campus. The final selection of candidates will solely be based on the performance during the interviews.

Chemical Sciences

Marks and Ranks (CSIR-JRF/UGC-JRF/GATE) based shortlisting and interview in person.

Mathematical Sciences

Candidates meeting all the eligibility criteria will be further shortlisted and be called for offline interviews at IISER TVM.

Physical Sciences

During the application process, the candidates will be asked to enter one of the choices among 1) Theoretical, 2) Experimental. The shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend interviews conducted in online mode.

Data Sciences

During the application process, a candidate will be asked to select one or more choices of the research areas for the School of Data Science based on her/his qualifications. The shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend interviews which will be conducted in in hybrid mode at IISER TVM.

Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences

Applications will be shortlisted based on marks, scores/ranks in national level exams and other relevant academic parameters. The shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend interviews which will be conducted in hybrid mode at IISER TVM.

CAMRIE

During the application process, a candidate will be asked to select one or more choices of the research area for the centre based on her/his qualification. The shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend interviews which will be conducted in hybrid mode at IISER TVM.

CHPC

During the application process, a candidate will be asked to select one or more choices of the research area for the centre based on her/his qualification. The shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend interviews which will be conducted in hybrid mode at IISER TVM.

• Online application portal opened from: 1 April, 2025
• Last date for receipt of online applications: 1 May, 2025

Tentative Interview Dates

• Biological Sciences First round (online): 1st week of June 2025
• Biological Sciences Final round (in-person): 4th week of June 2025
• Chemical Sciences: 19 May, 2025 to 21 May, 2025
• Mathematical Sciences: 2 June, 2025 to 3 June, 2025
• Physical Sciences: 8 May, 2025 to 9 May, 2025
• Data Sciences: 2nd week of May 2025
• EESS: 5 May, 2025 to 6 May, 2025
• CAMRIE: 2 May, 2025
• CHPC: 14 May, 2025 to 15 May, 2025

• Notification
• Application Form
• IISER TVM Website