IIT Gandhinagar PhD Admission 2025-26 (Semester-I)

12 February, 2025

Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Full details for IIT Gandhinagar PhD Admission 2025-26 (Semester-I).

IIT Gandhinagar invites applications for PhD admission offered in various disciplines for the academic session 2024-25 (Semester-I).

IIT Gandhinagar PhD Programs

Biological Sciences and Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Civil Engineering
Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Computer Science & Engineering, and
Artificial Intelligence
Earth Sciences, and Archaeological
Sciences
Electrical Engineering and Integrated
Circuit Design and Technology (ICDT)
Humanities & Social Sciences
Materials Engineering
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering, and Design
Physics

Focus Areas

Biological Sciences and Engineering

Genome Regulatory Mechanisms
Ultrasound (Imaging, Diagnostics, and Ultrasound-mediated therapy)
Computational Biology, Systems Biology
Plant biology (Development, Reproduction, Cell-cell Signaling, Biotechnology, Agriculture)
Drug delivery, Biomaterials (Hydrogels and Implants)

Chemical Engineering

Reaction Engineering: Heterogeneous catalysis, Catalyst synthesis, Multiphase reactions
Process optimization and control: Process Engineering, Control, and Optimization, Cyber-Physical Systems for industrial manufacturing and buildings, Machine learning and data science
Pharmaceutical Engineering and drug delivery: Biomaterials, Stimuli-responsive hydrogels, nano-drug suspensions, microbubbles for drug delivery and ultrasonic imaging, Pharmaceutical powder processing, Crystallization of pharmaceuticals, polymorphic behavior of pharmaceuticals
Molecular simulations: Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, Protein aggregation and protein folding, Biomolecular Simulations, molecular dynamic simulations for aqueous solutions of drug molecules
Water treatment: Waste-water treatment, Drinking water
Environmental science and engineering: Particulate matter and aerosols, Building energy management, indoor air quality, atmospheric transport, and transformation of pollutants
Advanced functional materials: Functional materials for CO2 capture and adsorption, Surface Engineering and Superhydrophobic surfaces, Colloids and Interfaces, Rheology, Supercapacitors and other energy storage devices
Polymer science and engineering: Polymer processing, polymer gels, polymer blends, Shape memory polymers, Smart polymeric materials, Polymer ionic liquids, Polymer nanocomposites
Nano & bio-engineering: Bio-printing, 3D printing, Synthetic biology, protein engineering, Hybrid nanomaterials, and biomolecules for agricultural applications

Chemistry

Machine learning potentials in material simulations; electronic structure and Delta-ML models for organic solar cells and LEDs
Molecular simulations to explore bio-assembly at the graphene aqueous interface; Computational approaches to study Ayurvedic formulations; Investigating the role of carbohydrates in bio-molecular systems
Catalysis for CO2 conversion to fuel, carbon capture and utilization, green hydrogen, electrochemistry, Materials chemistry
Electrochemical Reduction of CO2; Molecular electrocatalysis for nitrogen to ammonia interconversion
Solid State Chemistry of Modular Metal Chalcogenides Topological Materials for Sustainable Energy Conversion: Hydrogen Evolution, CO2 Reduction, Thermoelectrics
Development and optimization of metal nanoparticle based photocatalysts, sunlight to hydrogen production, Single-particle spectroscopy, Optical characterization of quantum dots and perovskite nanocrystals
Small molecule activation, Catalysis with main group compounds, Low-valent main group compounds, Dinitrogen and carbon dioxide fixation using 3d-transition metal complexes
Ultrafast dynamics in solar energy and optoelectronic materials; Perovskites, organic photovoltaics and molecular aggregates; Femtosecond laser spectroscopy
Development of novel organocatalysts, Application of organocatalysis to the asymmetric synthesis of bioactive molecules
Chemical Biology, Cancer therapeutics, Drug Discovery
Synthesis of Fluorescent dyes, polymers, and bioimaging
Chemical biology of organelles, small molecule and nanoscale material development for targeting organelles in cancer
Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) and design of novel photo redox catalysts for organic transformations
Environmental Chemistry of Adsorptive materials, rare earth elements and Nitrogen harvesting, Food Chemistry, Detection and Mitigation of Food Hazards

Civil Engineering

Geotechnical Engineering: Dynamic behavior of soils, soil liquefaction, suction and collapse of unsaturated soils, constitutive modeling of soils, geotechnical earthquake engineering, geosynthetics
Water Resources Engineering: Machine learning architectures for hydrological sciences, resilience of urban water distribution systems, land surface hydrologic modeling, remote sensing applications in hydrology, climate change impacts and risk assessment on water resources, dam breach and levee breach hydraulics, integrated urban water management, blockage/leak detection in pipes, modeling of floods and droughts
Structural Engineering: Fire engineering, tall structures, performance-based earthquake engineering of structures, probabilistic seismic hazard and ground motion characterization, seismic isolation of nuclear structures, structural health assessment and monitoring, resilience of infrastructure, computational solid mechanics, 3D concrete printing, topology optimization, multiscale material modeling, blast engineering
Environmental Engineering: Aerosols and air quality, indoor air quality, pollution mitigation
Transportation Engineering: Mechanistic modeling of flexible and rigid pavements, pavement-environment interaction, urban sustainability, AI/ML applications in transportation engineering
Construction Materials: Sustainable building materials, high-performance concrete, life cycle assessment, characterization techniques

Cognitive and Brain Science

Learning, Memory
Motor Control, Movement Disorders, Rehabilitation, Visuo-motor control and processing,
Emotion
Attentional selection and control
Visual Cognition, Embodied Cognition, Multlingual Cognition
Robotics, Human Robot Interaction
Decision Making
Tactile Hallucinations in Schizophrenia
Brain Connectivity
Tactile Perception
Bilingual Processing and Mental Lexicon
Language Acquisition
Multisensory Perception
Curiosity
Human-computer interaction and Brain-Computer interface

Computer Science and Engineering

Theoretical computer science, Computational complexity, Algebra and computation, Algorithms;
Machine learning; Game theory;
Formal methods and verification;
Quantum machine learning, Natural language Processing, Large Language Modelling;
Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Deep Learning Applications for Vision and Graphics;
Human-computer interaction, Brain-computer interface, Eye-tracking, Explainable AI, Medical imaging, Artificial intelligence of things, eHealth;
Software Engineering using Generative AI, Empirical Software Engineering, Software Testing, Mining Software Repositories;
System security, Web security, Usable privacy and security;
AI hardware design, Processor design and validation, Hardware Security, AI for Hardware Design and Test.
Graph neural networks, GNNs for citywide simulation.
Computer Networks, Network Security, Distributed Systems, Cloud computing and Computer Architecture

Earth Sciences

Climate Change, Water Resources,
Solid Earth, Mineralogy and Mineral Physics, High Pressure Metamorphism,
Geothermal Energy, Carbonate Depositional Systems, Sea level change
Geophysics, Geodynamic Modelling, Statistical Seismology, Numerical modeling of landscapes,
River Science, Earth Surface Processes (ESP), tectonic geomorphology, DEM Applications in ESP
Natural Hazards and risk, Remote sensing & GIS,
Environmental Archaeology, Geoarchaeology,
Archaeology, Ceramic Petrology, Ancient Technology,
Mircopalaeontology and Palaeoclimate.

Electrical Engineering

Nanoelectronics, Nanoscale Semiconductor Devices, Nanotechnology, Advanced Semiconductor Devices, Emerging Memories, Multi-scale and Multi-physics modeling, Semiconductor device and process modeling, 2D Materials
VLSI Design, Computing in Memory for ML, AI Hardware, Hardware Security, Computer Architecture
Analog Circuits, High-Frequency Analog Circuit Design, Mixed-signal IC Design, Power Management IC (PMIC) Design, IoT Electronic System Design
Semiconductor Manufacturing, Computational Lithography
Biomedical Signal Processing, Human Computer Interaction
Computer Vision, Image and Video Processing, Computer Graphics, Deep Learning
Adaptive Signal Processing, Array Signal Processing, Audio and Speech Signal Processing
Control Systems, Estimation Theory
Power Systems and Smart Grid
Electrical Machines and Power Electronics
Smart power electronics for Renewable Energy Integration and Electric Vehicles
Photonic Sensors, Fibre-optics, Nanophotonics, Electromagnetic Metamaterials, Computational Electromagnetics
Next-generation ultrasound imaging and therapy

Humanities and Social Sciences

Indian Writing in English, Representation of Women in Indian English Literature or Indian-English and Bengali literature, Indian Diasporic Literature in English
History of Northeast India in the Modern period, History of Food, Religion, Caste and Communities
Development Studies
Protohistoric Archaeology, Material Analysis in Archaeology, Conservation and Management of Cultural Heritage, GIS and Remote Sensing in Archaeology
Ancient Indian Technologies, Northeast Indian Archaeology and Repatriation
Education, Educational Technology, Teacher Professional Development, Learning Sciences
Psychoanalysis
Continental Philosophy
Global Modernist Studies

Materials Engineering

Interfaces, phase transformations and materials design
Antimicrobial polymers, Nanoparticles for drug delivery
Modeling of metal additive manufacturing process using OpenFOAM, AI/ML in materials processing
Quantum materials and multifunctional devices: synthesis, structure-property correlations, and device fabrication.
Thin Film Fabrication, (Opto)electronic materials, Low emissivity coating, Thermal barrier coating development
Microstructure (XRD,SEM,TEM)-Mechanical Property correlation in precipitate hardened metallic alloys; Sintering of metallic powders
Alloy Design (Al-, Cu-, Fe- based, High Entropy alloys, Superalloys), Hydrogen Embrittlement, Nuclear Irradiation
Self-cleaning and Anti-corrosive surfaces, Oil-Water Separation
Smart Materials, Biomaterials, Metal organic frameworks, Nanomaterials, Nanomedicine

Mathematics

Arithmetic Geometry
Analytic Number Theory
Partial Differential Equations
Numerical Analysis and Partial Differential Equations
Functional Analysis/Operator Algebras

Mechanical Engineering

Thermofluids: Fluid Mechanics and Heat transfer, Compressible flows, Turbulence, Combustion and propulsion, Fuel cells, Energy Systems, Battery Thermal Management, Complex Fluids, Porous media, Boiling, Condensation and frosting.
Robotics and Dynamics Systems: Control systems, Robotics, Robot learning, Human-robot interactions, Nonlinear dynamics and wave propagation
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics: Material Mechanics, Biomechanics, Fracture mechanics, Damage Mechanics, Beams, Composites.

Design

Communication Design: Visual design for EdTech, Educational Multimedia using new mediums, Gamification to achieve engagement in online education
Design for Education: Design of AI and robots for learning, Designing maker spaces-based learning environments.
Experience Design: Game Studies and Game Design Theory, Designing Interactions for everyday AI, Player Experiences and Experience Design, Applied Game Design

Physics

Theoretical Particle Physics: Flavor Physics, Dark Matter, Beyond Standard Model Phenomenology
Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Theoretical High-Energy Physics:Scattering amplitude & gravitational wave, Topological Quantum Field theory and quantum Information & quantum many-body physics
Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) at high temperature and strong interaction physics, Hot QCD matter, heavy quark dynamics in hot QCD medium, impact of magnetic field and spin to quark-gluon plasma
Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics: Strongly correlated systems, Superconductivity, Magnetism, Quantum transport, Entanglement and Quantum Information, Quantum Hall Effects
Experimental Condensed Matter: related to semiconductor solar cells
Experimental research-2D material based Fuel cell technologies, Quantum Transport- Topological insulators and Weyl semimetals, Ionic Memristors for nueromorphic computing,
Renewable energy harvesting, optoelectronic, photoelectrochemical and sensing applications of functional materials and composites
Experimental Soft Condensed Matter Physics- Flow ad self-assembly of complex fluids
Experimental Soft and Active Matter Physics
Quantum Optics, Open Quantum Systems, Ultracold Atomic Physics, Quantum Sensing, Quantum Thermodynamics
Nanomagnetism and Spintronics

Admission Categories

Regular(RR):

Fulltime residential research candidate.

Continuing Doctoral Programme (CDP)

Candidates admitted to the PhD programme under the CDP category can directly join the PhD programme.
The residency requirement for the candidates will be the time required to do the course work offered offline. Further, the candidates are encouraged to spend at least two weeks every semester at IITGN to ensure steady progress in their PhD research work.
The curricular requirements will be the same as that of a regular PhD programme.

Financial Support

Students joining the Ph.D. program as regulars (RR) may be considered for the Institute Fellowship (subjected to availability of fund) based on the following norms:

Candidates with qualifications in any of the points (a-f) mentioned below are eligible for a monthly fellowship of Rs. 37,000/-.
- a). Post Graduate Degree in Basic Science with NET/GATE Qualification or Graduate Degree in Professional Courses (B.Tech/B.E.) with NET/GATE Qualification or Postgraduate Degree in Professional Courses (M.Tech/M.E. etc)
- b). BTech degree from a CFTI (Centrally Funded Technical Institute) with CPI at least 8.0 (on a scale of 10).
- c). MSc/MA from IITs with CPI at least 8.0 (on a scale of 10)
- d). BS from IISc with CPI at least 6.4 (on a scale of 8)
- e). BS-MS from IISERs with CPI at least 8.0 (on a scale of 10)
- f). BS from IISERs with CPI at least 8.0 (on a scale of 10)
After successful completion of two years in a regular Ph.D. programme, a Ph.D. candidate may be eligible for a monthly fellowship of Rs. 42,000/-.

Eligibility Criteria

Minimum of 55% marks (50% marks for SC/ST/PwD) or 5.5 CPI (5.0 CPI for SC/ST/PwD) in postgraduate degree programme or in 4-years bachelor degree programme in appropriate branches.
Above mentioned eligibility criteria is minimum at Institute level. The departments may also use higher cut-off levels for shortlisting besides giving due consideration to the way questions are answered in the application form.

Candidates belonging to SC/ST/PwD categories would be eligible for relaxations, as per norms, in the selection criteria.

The departments may also use higher cut off levels for shortlisting. Merely meeting the minimum eligibility criteria will not guarantee the shortlisting and/or admission.

Discipline wise minimum eligibility criteria

Admission Procedure

Admission is generally offered on the basis of an interview, which is supplemented by a written test if necessary. The Institute will invite a limited number of candidates for a written test and/or interview based on the academic records, statement of purpose, etc. The final selection will be mainly based on academic credentials, written test and/or interview.

The mode (offline/online) and dates for the written test (if any) and interview will be communicated to the shortlisted candidates by their respective departments.

In addition to the announced admission cycles with prescribed deadline of application, the Institute also considers applications any time of the year in case of exceptional candidates. Based on the qualifications of the candidates and the need of the discipline concerned, applications received are processed through duly constituted selection committees at regular intervals.

Application Process

Applications have to be submitted online.
If you are applying for more than one discipline you have to submit a separate application for each discipline.
You will receive an application number and a link to download the application form after successful submission of the application form.
You have to furnish hard copy of the application form and self attested copies of all the required documents at the time of interview.