# Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali (IISER Mohali) is an autonomous public Research institute established in 2007 at Mohali, Punjab, India. It is one of the seven Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), established by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India, to research in frontier areas of science and to provide science education at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. It was established after IISER Pune and IISER Kolkata and is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India. Institute focuses on pure research as well as interdisciplinary research in various fields of science.

## History

The institute was approved by The Planning Commission in New Delhi in July 2006 and land was provided by The Punjab State government. The foundation stone of IISER Mohali was laid on 27 September 2006 by the former Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh. The Computing Facility of IISER Mohali was inaugurated on 3 September 2007 by T. Ramasami (Secretary, Department of Science and Technology). The Earth-breaking ceremony for IISER boundary wall was held on 29 December 2008 at the proposed campus site in Knowledge City, Sector 81, S.A.S. Nagar. The ceremony was performed by N. Sathyamurthy, the founding director of the institute.
C.N.R. Rao inaugurated the Chemistry Research Laboratory on 8 April 2009. The Central Analytical Facility of IISER Mohali has been inaugurated in March 2010. Initially, the institute started its working from a transit campus in Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration (MGSIPA), Chandigarh. In March 2010, the institute started shifting to its permanent campus in The Knowledge City at Sector 81 with the opening of Central Analytical Facility (CAF) and completed the shifting in May 2013 by shutting operations in MGSIPAP complex, Sector 26, Chandigarh.

## Academics
### Academic Programs

Source:
The institute offers the following programs:
* Integrated Master's level (B.S.-M.S.): Admission to this program is after 10+2 years of school training and is done through the IISERs Joint Admissions Committee.
* Integrated Doctoral Program (Int. Ph.D.): Integrated Ph.D. involves a master's degree (M.S.) followed by a doctorate (Ph.D.). Students after three years of undergraduate education can join the program.
* Doctoral Program (Ph.D.): IISER Mohali has a separate doctoral program, in hard sciences or in the Humanities & Social Sciences Department, which requires a master's degree as qualification.

### Admissions

Admissions to UG courses in IISERs are done exclusively through the IISER Aptitude Test (IAT)

### Reputation and Rankings

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked it 49 in research and 64 overall in India in 2024.

## Organization and administration
### Departments

IISER Mohali is currently having six departments:
* Department of Physical Sciences
* Department of Chemical Sciences
* Department of Mathematical Sciences
* Department of Biological Science
* Department of Earth Science
* Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

### Facilities

* NMR Research Facility (NMR)
* X-ray Facility - X-ray Diffraction Crystallograph
* Cell Culture Facility
* Animal house
* Atomic Force microscope
* Laser Raman and AFM Facility-Raman Infrared spectroscope
* Circular Dichroic Spectrometer
* Atmospheric Chemistry Facility
* Computing Facility
* Scanning Electron Microscopy
* DC Sputtering
* PLD Machine
* Cryostat
* Dilution refrigerator
* Liquid Helium Facility
* Liquid Nitrogen Facility
* FemtoLaser facility
* Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS)
* Laser micro-Raman spectroscope
* Single Crystal X-ray Diffractometer
* Crystal Growth Laboratory
* PPMS
* SQUID
* Tetra and mono arc furnace
* Tube furnace

### Conferences held

* 7th JNOST Conference: 15–18 December 2011
* History of Chemistry in India, 2013
* Conference on Nonlinear Systems and Dynamics, 2013
* ICTS program: Knot theory and its Applications, 10–20 December 2013.
* 43rd National Seminar on Crystallography: 28–30 March 2014
* 32nd meeting of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI): 20–22 March 2014
* International Workshop "Knots, Braids and Topology", 15–17 October 2014
* International Workshop "ATMW: Lattices--Geometry and Dynamics", 17–22 December 2014
* National Conference on Ethology and Evolution (30 October to 1 November 2015)
* International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology (ICGC) 2015
* Conference on Nonlinear Systems and Dynamics, 2015
* 30th Annual Conference of the Ramanujan Mathematical Society, 15–17 May 2015.
* GIAN course on "Quantum Criticality in Heavy Fermions: an Experimental Perspective", 22–28 March 2018
* National Conference On Quantum Condensed Matter, 25–27 July 2018
* 9th International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, 10–13 December 2019

## Student life
### Amenities

* Health Centre
* Counseling Service
* Accommodation & Transport including visitors hostel
* World Class Library of 8 levels
* Sports Complex complete with two courts each for basketball, tennis, and volleyball
* Cricket cum Football ground in the stadium which has a seating capacity of 1000
* Computer Centre with High-Performance Scientific Computing cluster
* Various labs
* Gym

### National Science Day celebrations

National Science Day celebrations on 28 February are a regular feature at IISER Mohali, every year. Invitations are sent to schools in Mohali, Chandigarh, Panchkula and nearby areas. The focus of the day is on science and mathematics demonstrations prepared by IISER Mohali students and faculty members. A large number of schools send teams for inter-school competitions such as science quizzes, group discussions, treasure hunt, junkyard wars, poster presentation held on this day. Other non-competitive events such as documentary screening, anti-superstition demonstrations, etc. are also held. The day usually ends with a 'panel discussion' in which the school students ask science-related questions to a panel of faculty members of IISER Mohali. Since 2015, the Science Day celebrations have been shifted to 27 September, IISER Mohali's Foundation Day, as this date is more convenient for school students in the region.

### Opportunity Cell

The Opportunity Cell was first proposed by the Student Representative Council, in October 2011 as a joint student-faculty body to provide guidance to students about research and job opportunities. In the year 2012−13, the opportunity cell established a summer research and internship programme with National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, Connexios Life sciences and Lucid Software Limited (Lucid). It also organised various seminars such as "Alternative Careers in Science", "Research Opportunities at University of St Andrews" etc. Currently the cell disseminates information about summer research programmes, PhD positions and research oriented jobs.

### Magazine

Manthan, IISER Mohali's student magazine was revived in the summer of 2018 after a long gap. Six editions, along with a lockdown Life in Quarantine edition, have been published since its revival.

### Clubs

Source:
* 1. Phi@i - Physics Club
* 2. Biology Discussion Forum (BDF)
* 3. Infinity - Math Club
* 4. Turing Club- Computation Club
* 5. Curie Club - Chemistry Club
* 6. Robotics Club
* 7. Lumiére - Photography Club
* 8. Itehad - Dance Club
* 9. Aria - Music Club
* 10. Ambient - Environment Club
* 11. Miles - Running Club
* 12. DarpaN - Drama Club
* 13. Literary and Debating Society(LDS)
* 14. Rang - Art club
* 15. IISER Mohali Quiz Club (IMQC)
* 16. AstrISM - Astronomy Club
* 17. Movie club
* 18. IEC - Entrepreneurship Club
* 19. Adventure & Sports Club
* 20. Gaming club
* 21. Adaa - Fashion Club.

## Notable people
### Current faculty

* Inder Bir Singh Passi, Bhatnagar Prize winning Mathematician
* Anand Kumar Bachhawat, Geneticist and Biochemist
* Kausik Chattopadhyay, N-Bios laureate
* Kapil Hari Paranjape, Bhatnagar Prize winning Mathematician
* Sudeshna Sinha, Physicist
* Anu Sabhlok, Architect and a well known geographer and feminist scholar
* Somdatta Sinha, theoretical biologist
* Debi Prasad Sarkar, Bhatnagar Prize winning biochemist

### Former Faculty

* Meera Nanda, Historian and Philosopher of Science
* Narayanasami Sathyamurthy, Bhatnagar Prize winning Chemist and President of Chemical Research Society of India. He was the director of IISER Mohali from 2007 to 2017