Prospective Students and Postdoctoral Fellows
PhD (graduate student) Thesis Research: Typically, the pool of graduate students who join the Department of Physical Sciences at IISER Kolkata is the subset that we expect our PhD students to come from. The relevant programs are a PhD (Post MSc) and an Integrated PhD (Post BSc) program. I have also in the past worked with external graduate students from various Universities; this is encouraged only if your regular research supervisor has no problems with, and encourages you to work on those aspects of astrophysics and space sciences that I am interested in; PhD students enrolled in foreign universities may also seek this option for collaborative research.
Undergraduate (BS and MS) Research Projects and Summer Internships: There is scope for research projects that stretch from a few months to longer periods, if this is allowed by your Institution and the program that you are enrolled in. IISER Kolkata has a 5-year Integrated MS program, the last year of which is devoted to research.
More information on undergraduate and graduate programs offered by IISER Kolkata is available at: http://www.iiserkol.ac.in/academics/programmes.
Postdoctoral Research: Funding is available for pursing postdoctoral research in solar dynamo theory, astrophysical space sciences and Sun-Earth-System science under my supervision. You should have a PhD degree in an appropriate field and a demonstrable record of good performance.
If you are interested, write to me and we will take it from there.
Current Students:
Soumitra Hazra, PhD Candidate, IISER Kolkata
Bidya Binay Karak, PhD Candidate, IISc Bangalore (Bidya collaborates with me through annual visits)
Sushant Mahajan, MTech Candidate in Engineering Physics, IIT-BHU (Sushant is also a visitor and collaborates remotely)
Past Students:
Lecturer, Magnetohydrodynamics Group, Division of Mathematics, University of Dundee, UK
Lecturer, Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Durham, UK
NASA Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA
Portuguese Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal and University of Montreal, Canada
Sample Undergraduate Student Research Projects:
I have in the past supervised many undergraduate students through the Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Montana State University. You can find links to the research projects of these students (many of which have resulted in publications) from the website http://solar.physics.montana.edu/REU/ (check the years 2008 and earlier). I prefer to have a flexible work schedule for undergraduate students, which is distributed across the year and not just focused during the summer. Distance, in my opinion, ceases to be a problem after an initial phase of hands-on training at IISER, Kolkata. Often, collaborations can be sustained through web-based tools and teleconferences, if there is enough motivation from both sides.