Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) is a multidisciplinary research institute situated in Jakkur, a locality north of Bangalore, India. It is relatively young yet well-known around the Globe. Our mandate is to pursue and promote world-class research and training at the frontiers of Science and Engineering covering broad areas ranging from Materials to Genetics. It provides a vibrant academic ambience hosting more than 300 Researchers. The Centre is funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and is a deemed university.

Our small size (around 50 faculty members, spread over several disciplines) is an advantage: not segregated in far-flung labs, our chemists, physicists, biologists and engineers rub shoulders throughout the day. This fosters a spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration which is one of the hallmarks of JNCASR. In addition to our young and dynamic faculty, we have over 300 bright and energetic graduate students and state-of-the art experimental, computational and infrastructural facilities.We area Deemed University granting Master’s and Ph.D degrees.

Researchers at the Centre are divided into nine units: Chemistry and Physics of Materials, Educational Technology, Engineering Mechanics, Evolutionary and Integrative Biology, Geodynamics, Molecular Biology and Genetics, New Chemistry, Neuroscience, Theoretical Sciences.Though it is of course difficult to quantify scientific performance, by all numerical indications (numbers of publications, citations, grants, patents filed, etc.), science at the Centre is flourishing. 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.The work of the Centre’s faculty is also being recognized by various awards.

We also support a range of educational outreach activities: every year, our highly competitive 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; we organize and teach short term courses at universities across India; and promising young chemists and biologists are trained intensively as part of our programmes of Project-Oriented-Chemical-Education (POCE) and Project-Oriented-Biological-Education (POBE).

Our faculty and students benefit from interacting with scientists at the many research institutions in the greater Bangalore area. The intellectual atmosphere at JNCASR is further livened by a regular stream of visitors from all over the world, who contribute to spirited scientific discussions at seminars, conferences and summer schools. We believe we possess all the necessary ingredients to excel in scientific research and education, and look forward to growing further in the coming years.