JNCASR
Encyclopedia
The Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research is a relatively young but already well-known multidisciplinary research institute. It was established by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India
, to mark the birth centenary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It is located in Jakkur, Bangalore
, India
. Its mandate is to pursue and promote scientific research and training at the frontiers of science and engineering. The president of the JNCASR is Manchanahalli Rangaswamy Satyanarayana Rao
(Prof. M.R.S. Rao) and the honorary president is Prof. C.N.R. Rao
.
JNCASR has a faculty-to-student ratio of about 1:4, and state-of-the art experimental, computational and infrastructural facilities. It offers Ph.D. programmes, as well as an Integrated Ph.D.
(post-bachelor's degree) programme in Materials Science. It is a "deemed university", i.e., it awards its own degrees.
Apart from training its own students through a wide spectrum of courses, JNCASR actively supports a range of education outreach activities. For example, every year the centre's Summer Research Fellowship programme hosts some of the very brightest undergraduates in the country; the Educational Technology Unit produces a range of teaching aids and educational material; the centre also organises and teaches short term courses at universities across India; and promising young chemists and biologists are trained intensively as part of the programmes of Project-Oriented-Chemical-Education (POCE) and Project-Oriented-Biological-Education (POBE).
Amongst the many such on-campus collaborations that have sprung up over the years: a fluid dynamicist has joined forces with a statistical mechanician to look at flow in nanochannels, and with an experimental physicist to study the freezing of laser-induced metal droplets when they impinge on a substrate; a theoretical molecular-dynamics study of the arrangement of water molecules around a protein has emerged from coffee-table discussions between a biochemist and physicist; and a many-body theorist is modelling the devices developed in the molecular electronics lab.
In the last few years, the centre's faculty members have published their research in some of the most prestigious scientific journals, including Nature
, Nature Medicine
, Science
, Evolution
, the Journal of the American Chemical Society
, Angewandte Chemie
, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics
, and Physical Review Letters
. JNCASR contributes about 200 journal paper a year.
The work of the centre's faculty has been recognized by awards. The list of honours and prizes received by C.N.R. Rao
runs into many pages. To list just a few of the awards gained by other faculty members: in 2006, Tapas K Kundu was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
for biological sciences, Anuranjan Anand received the Outstanding Research Award from the Department of Atomic Energy (India)
, and Srikanth Sastry
, GU Kulkarni and S. Balasubramanian received the B M Birla Science Prize. In 2007 Rama Govindarajan was one of the recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
.
) rising above the treetops.
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
, to mark the birth centenary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It is located in Jakkur, Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Its mandate is to pursue and promote scientific research and training at the frontiers of science and engineering. The president of the JNCASR is Manchanahalli Rangaswamy Satyanarayana Rao
Manchanahalli Rangaswamy Satyanarayana Rao
Manchanahalli Rangaswamy Satyanarayana Rao is an eminent Indian scientist, born on January 21, 1948 at Mysore, India. He has been awarded Padma Shri in Science and Engineering category by the Government of India. He is the President of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research ,...
(Prof. M.R.S. Rao) and the honorary president is Prof. C.N.R. Rao
C.N.R. Rao
Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, also known as C.N.R. Rao ) is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry.-Education:...
.
Academics
Researchers at the centre are divided into six units: Chemistry and Physics of Materials, Engineering Mechanics, Evolutionary and Organismal Biology, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Theoretical Sciences, Educational Technology and Geodynamics. There are two off-campus units: the Chemical Biology and Condensed Matter Theory.JNCASR has a faculty-to-student ratio of about 1:4, and state-of-the art experimental, computational and infrastructural facilities. It offers Ph.D. programmes, as well as an Integrated Ph.D.
(post-bachelor's degree) programme in Materials Science. It is a "deemed university", i.e., it awards its own degrees.
Apart from training its own students through a wide spectrum of courses, JNCASR actively supports a range of education outreach activities. For example, every year the centre's Summer Research Fellowship programme hosts some of the very brightest undergraduates in the country; the Educational Technology Unit produces a range of teaching aids and educational material; the centre also organises and teaches short term courses at universities across India; and promising young chemists and biologists are trained intensively as part of the programmes of Project-Oriented-Chemical-Education (POCE) and Project-Oriented-Biological-Education (POBE).
Collaboration and research
The small size of the institute (currently about 40 faculty members and 120 students) has many advantages. It fosters interdisciplinary collaborations that might not have sprung up at larger institutions where researchers are segregated in far-flung labs.Amongst the many such on-campus collaborations that have sprung up over the years: a fluid dynamicist has joined forces with a statistical mechanician to look at flow in nanochannels, and with an experimental physicist to study the freezing of laser-induced metal droplets when they impinge on a substrate; a theoretical molecular-dynamics study of the arrangement of water molecules around a protein has emerged from coffee-table discussions between a biochemist and physicist; and a many-body theorist is modelling the devices developed in the molecular electronics lab.
In the last few years, the centre's faculty members have published their research in some of the most prestigious scientific journals, including Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
, Nature Medicine
Nature Medicine
Nature Medicine is an academic journal publishing research articles, reviews, news and commentaries in the biomedical area, including both basic research and early-phase clinical research. Topics covered include cancer, cardiovascular disease, gene therapy, immunology, vaccines, and neuroscience...
, Science
Science (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
, Evolution
Evolution (journal)
Evolution, the International Journal of Organic Evolution, is a leading monthly scientific journal that publishes significant new results of empirical or theoretical investigations concerning facts, processes, mechanics, or concepts of evolutionary phenomena and events. Evolution is published by...
, the Journal of the American Chemical Society
Journal of the American Chemical Society
The Journal of the American Chemical Society is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the Journal of Analytical and Applied Chemistry and the American Chemical Journal...
, Angewandte Chemie
Angewandte Chemie
Angewandte Chemie is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers all aspects of chemistry. Its impact factor was 12.730 in 2010, the highest value for a chemistry-specific journal that publishes original research...
, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
The Journal of Fluid Mechanics is the leading scientific journal in the field of fluid mechanics. It publishes original work on theoretical, computational and experimental aspects of the subject. The journal is usually referred to by its initials JFM by academics in the field. Within citations,...
, and Physical Review Letters
Physical Review Letters
Physical Review Letters , established in 1958, is a peer reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society...
. JNCASR contributes about 200 journal paper a year.
The work of the centre's faculty has been recognized by awards. The list of honours and prizes received by C.N.R. Rao
C.N.R. Rao
Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, also known as C.N.R. Rao ) is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry.-Education:...
runs into many pages. To list just a few of the awards gained by other faculty members: in 2006, Tapas K Kundu was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology is awarded annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, medicine and Physics...
for biological sciences, Anuranjan Anand received the Outstanding Research Award from the Department of Atomic Energy (India)
Department of Atomic Energy (India)
The Department of Atomic Energy is a department directly under the Prime Minister of India with headquartered in Mumbai. The department is responsible for nuclear technology, including nuclear power and research....
, and Srikanth Sastry
Srikanth Sastry
Srikanth Sastry is a scientist with Ph.D. from Boston university, 1993. Postdoctral research at the National Institutes of Health and Princeton University. Faculty Fellow , Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, 1998...
, GU Kulkarni and S. Balasubramanian received the B M Birla Science Prize. In 2007 Rama Govindarajan was one of the recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology is awarded annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, medicine and Physics...
.
Campus
The architecturally innovative buildings on the campus blend inobtrusively into several acres of lush landscape, with only the buckyball dome (designed by Charles CorreaCharles Correa
Charles Correa is an Indian architect, planner and activist.-Early life:Charles Correa was born in Hyderabad, India...
) rising above the treetops.