Ph. D. Advertisement Varsha 2026 (JEST 2026)

Applications are invited from highly motivated students having qualified in JEST for admission to the Ph. D. programs of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER TVM) in the School Physics for the session starting from August 2026, i.e., Varsha 2026 semester. Candidates are required to apply through the online portal only. The online application portal will be open from 20th March 2026 at (https://phdadmission.iisertvm.ac.in/index.php/applicant/register/21)

General Eligibility Criteria

(For School- or Centre-specific eligibility criteria, see the tables below)

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/ Data Sciences/ Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences(see Research Areas))
2. The candidate must have qualified at least one of the following examination: JEST2026, with validity as on 01 August 2026. .
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.

Schoolwise Research Areas

Physical Sciences

Experimental Physics

• (*) Super capacitors, Solid-state Lithium Batteries https://faculty.iisertvm.ac.in/shaijumon/
• Quantum Magnetism
• Excitons in 2D materials, Quantum Emitters, Epsilon Near Zero Systems https://jmitra.wixsite.com/joygroup
• Superconductivity, Quantum materials, Energy materials https://sites.google.com/iisertvm.ac.in/quemat
• 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 https://faculty.iisertvm.ac.in/manoj/
• Ultrafast Optical Spectroscopy of 2D nanomaterials https://rajeevkini.iisertvm.ac.in/
• 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 photoacoustic imaging (PAI) system - both microscopy and tomography https://www.iisertvm.ac.in/faculty/suhesh.kumar
• (*) Engineered Quantum Materials and Device Physics https://bikas.iisertvm.ac.in/
• (*) Advanced semiconductor devices for power / energy conversion https://www.iisertvm.ac.in/faculty/guru
• (*) Quantum Materials (Topological materials, and Van der Waals heterostructures), Spintronics (Multiferroics) https://www.fmdlab.in/
• (*) Ultrafast molecular dynamics, Generation of attosecond pulse train https://www.iisertvm.ac.in/faculty/krishnendugope
• (*) Quantum dot spin-qubits, 2D superconducting circuits https://faculty.iisertvm.ac.in/qtran/

Theoretical Physics

• Condensed Matter Theory: Strongly correlated electron systems, Neural quantum state (NQS) wave function for quantum many-body systems, Topological phases of matter.
• Nonlinear Dynamics and Complex Systems: Adaptive Networks https://faculty.iisertvm.ac.in/skumar/
• Condensed Matter Theory: Quantum Materials, Magnetism and Spintronics https://sites.google.com/view/souvikpaul-cmslab
• Beyond Standard Model of Particle Physics, Effective Field Theory, Baryon Number Violation, Dark Matter https://www.iisertvm.ac.in/faculty/mathewthomas or https://inspirehep.net/authors/1413667
• Quantum Information Theory, Quantum Materials (Theory) and Quantum Limited Sensing and Metrology
• Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation and Analysis of Cosmological and Astrophysical Datasets https://iisertvm.irins.org/profile/94131
• High Energy Astrophysics (Computational Astrophysics in Gamma Ray Bursts)
• Beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, Collider Phenomenology
• Soft Matter, Complex Systems, Biophysics
• Theoretical and Computational Physics of Soft and Active Matter, with Applications to Biological and Complex Systems
• Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics (Models such as Stochastic Lattice Gas, Coupled Burgers Equations, etc.)
• Quantum Simulations, Synthetic Quantum Matter, and Quantum Information
• Pulsars and Gravitational Waves (Theory and Data Analysis)

(*) BE/BTECH candidates are eligible for selected areas marked with asterisk

School and Centre wise Selection Procedure

Important Dates

General Information and Application Procedure

1. Applicants should complete the online application form at the url: ( https://phdadmission.iisertvm.ac.in/index.php/applicant/register/21 ).
2. Only applications complete in all respects would be considered. Do not forget to click the “Submit” button after completing your application.
3. Applicants will also be prompted to upload all the supporting documents online.
4. Applicants should provide Name/Affiliation/Contact number and Email addresses of two referees in the application form.
5. Applicants belonging to GEN/OBC and SC/ST/PH categories are required to make a payment of Rs. 500/- and Rs. 250/-, respectively, as a processing fee online through the application portal.
6. On submission of the online application form, the applicants will receive an acknowledgement email with a unique application number.
7. Applicants are NOT required to post a hard copy of the application to IISER TVM.
8. 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.
9. Mere fulfilment of the eligibility criteria does not entitle a candidate to be called for the interview.
10. Relaxation for reserved categories to the eligibility criteria will be applicable as per Government of India rules.