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Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram
Online Application for the Admission to PhD Programme

Detailed Advertisement

Ph. D. Advertisement Vasanth 2027 (January 2027)

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Ph. D. Advertisement Vasanth 2027

Applications are invited from highly motivated students for admission to the Ph. D. programs of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER TVM) in the Schools of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Data Sciences , Earth Environmental and Sustainability Sciences (EESS), and in the Centre High-Performance Computing (CHPC) for the session starting from January 2027, i.e., Vasanth 2027 semester. Candidates are required to apply through the online portal only. The online application portal will be open from 3rd November 2026 at (https://phdadmission.iisertvm.ac.in/index.php/applicant/register/28)

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/ Mathematical Sciences/ Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences(see Research Areas))
  2. The candidate must have qualified at least one of the following examinations: CSIR-JRF, UGC-JRF (Category-I or II or III) or GATE or other national-level examinations as specified in the document, with validity as on 01 January 2027 (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 CGPA of 8 or above on a 10-point scale are exempted from national level test eligibility related 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 1 AND 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/BM/PH/CS/DA/AG/CY/ST)*: Will be considered only for Bioinformatics/Computational Biology/Theoretical Biology.
    • NBHM-JRF: Will be considered only for Bioinformatics/Computational Biology/Theoretical Biology.
    • JGEEBILS (GS-2027)*
    • 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 may be imposed to shortlist these candidates

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
Chemical Sciences Chemical Sciences
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
Physical Sciences Physical Sciences/Material Science/Engineering areas closely related to the research areas of School of School of Physics, IISER TVM
  • General Eligibility 1 and General Eligibility 2

OR

  • (General Eligibility 1 AND JEST 2026 (Physics))

OR

  • General Eligibility 3

For the * marked research areas listed below, BE/BTech candidates are eligible to apply.
Mathematical Sciences

MSc/MS or Graduates of 4-year Bachelor of Science Programmes in Mathematical Sciences

OR

BE/BTech/Engineering areas closely related to the research areas in the School of Mathematics
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • (General Eligibility 1 AND NBHM JRF)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
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 School of Data Science, IISER TVM.
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • (General Eligibility 1 AND JEST 2026 (Theoretical Computer Science))

OR

  • General Eligibility 3

For the * marked research areas listed below, BE/BTech candidates are eligible to apply.
Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences MSc or MTech in Atmospheric Science/ Geology/ Applied Geology/ Earth Science/ Physics/ Marine Sciences/Marine Biology/Chemistry/ Biology/ Mathematics/Meteorology/Atmospheric Science/Climate Science/Oceanography/Water Resources/Hydrology Ecology/Agriculture/Environment Science/Remote Sensing/Electronics & Communication Engineering/Engineering Physics/Oceanography/ Remote sensing/ Geoinformatics
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 / equivalent)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3

For the * marked research areas listed below, BE/BTech candidates are eligible to apply.

Schoolwise Research Areas

Biological Sciences

Chemical Sciences

Data Sciences

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

Mathematical Sciences
  • Homogeneous Dynamics, Number Theory;
  • Low Dimensional Topology;
  • Profinite Groups, Homological Methods in Group Theory/Algebra;
  • Linear Algebra, Matrix Analysis;
  • Algebraic Geometry;
  • Category Theory, Differential Geometry; 
  • Partial Differential Equations (PDEs), Nonlinear Analysis;
  • Numerical Analysis of PDEs;
  • Stochastic PDEs;
  • Harmonic Analysis;
  • Functional Analysis;
  • Financial Engineering/Mathematical Oncology/Data Science-Machine Learning;
  • Complex Dynamics

Physical Sciences

Experimental Physics

Theoretical Physics

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

Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences

Centre-wise Research Areas and Eligibility:

CHPC Centre of High-Performance Computing

Research areas Relevant Areas Eligibility
Computational materials science;
https://www.iisertvm.ac.in/faculty/swathi		 MSc in Chemistry/Physics
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
Computational Gamma ray burst Astro-physics MSc Physics, BTech computer science
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
Theoretical and Computational Chemical physics, Computational Biology and Softmatter biological physics,
https://sites.google.com/view/pushpita-ghosh/home?pli=1		 MSc in Chemistry/Physics/Biophysics/Computational Biology/Biotechnology; ME/MTech in Chemistry, Physics
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
Biological Image processing & 3D reconstruction, Computational Structural Biology and Bioinformatics
https://faculty.iisertvm.ac.in/natesh/		 MSc/MS/MTech OR BE/BTech/Engineering degree (4 years) in Physical Sciences, Biophysics, Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Mathematics or Chemical Science etc. Including: Electronics & Communication (specializing in Image Processing), Engineering Physics Preferred electives: Drug Discovery, Bioinformatics, Big Data Analysis, Image Processing or relevant fields. Candidate should have a good aptitude to work on structure, function and mechanism of biological macromolecules (Proteins/Protein DNA/RNA/Drug complexes) and assemblies using biological image data from single particle cryoEM/cryoET and 3 dimensional image processing and/or Protein Crystallography, Protein structure based drug design (SBDD) including AI based methods and Big Data Analysis, Structural Bioinformatics. Candidates with Competence in using Linux environments and programming (such as C/C++/python etc.) will be preferred.
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
Numerical methods for Partial differential equations, Computational fluid dynamics, Hyperbolic system of conservation laws:
https://www.iisertvm.ac.in/faculty/sudarshan 		MSc/MTech in areas of Mathematics. Familiar with PDEs, Numerical methods, Scientific computing.
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
Finite Element Methods for PDE-Constrained Optimal Control Problems
http://www.iisertvm.ac.in/faculty/ashadon/ 		MSc/MTech in Mathematics. Familiar with PDEs, Numerical methods
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
Computational Fluid Dynamics, Numerical methods for PDEs, HPC for Computational Biology of the Heart.
https://www.iisertvm.ac.in/faculty/nchamakuri/research-interests 		MSc/MTech in Mathematics/Data Science/Biomedical engineering. Background in PDEs, Numerical methods, Scientific computing, and/or Compuitational biology is plus.
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3
Theoretical and Computational Biology: Tissue regeneration, Cell Polarity, Signal processing
https://www.bandanchakrabortty.com/ 		MSc/MTech in Physics or Mathematics or Computer Science BE/BTech (4 years) Physics or Mathematics or Computer Science
  • (General Eligibility 1 AND General Eligibility 2)

OR

  • General Eligibility 3

School and Centre wise Selection Procedure

SCHOOL/CENTRE SELECTION PROCEDURE

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 in person for interviews conducted by IISER TVM. 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 conducted in online mode.

Physical Sciences

The shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend interviews which will be conducted in hybrid mode at IISER TVM.

Mathematical Sciences

The shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend interviews, which will be 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 online mode at IISER TVM.

Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences

Applications will be shortlisted based on marks and 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.

Important Dates

Online application portal opened from 03 November 2026
Last date for receipt of online applications 23 November 2026

Tentative Interview Dates
Biological Sciences 07-10 December 2026
Chemical Sciences 01-02 December 2026
Physical Sciences 04 December 2026
Data Sciences 1st week of December 2026
Mathematical Sciences 1st week of December 2026
EESS 02-04 December 2026
CHPC 25-26 November 2026
Mode of examination See the Schoolwise selection procedure

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/28 ).
  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.
Instructions | Required Documents | Apply Now | View / Modify Application