BITS Pilani - IISER Tirupati Joint PhD Program

IISER Tirupati, an Institute of National Importance under the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India, invites applications from eligible candidates for admission to the Ph.D. Program in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics departments for the Joint-PhD program with BITS Pilani.

The broad areas of research, important dates, and eligibility criteria in each department are as follows:

BIOLOGY

Neuro/Cell Biology, Infection Biology

Project title:Neuronal Cell Remodeling and Host Determinants of Toxoplasma gondii Infection

Visit the following website for further details:

https://www.iisertirupati.ac.in/faculty-details/?faculty_id=Bio-17&id=2124

https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/hyderabad/prof-nishith-gupta

Important Dates:

Opening date of online application: July 09, 2026

Closing date of online application: July 23, 2026

Announcement of candidates shortlisted for interview: July 24, 2026 (Tentative)

Interview of shortlisted candidates: July 25-26, 2026 (Tentative)

Announcement of interview results: July 27, 2026 (Tentative)

Joining date for Ph.D. Program: 1^st week of August, 2026 (Tentative)

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR BIOLOGY:

Discipline	Minimum Eligibility Criteria	Desirable Eligibility Criteria
Biology	Students with a minimum 55% marks in aggregate (overall percentage including all subjects) or CGPA 6.0 on a 10-point scale in a Master’s degree in any branch Biological Sciences Candidates with BE/B.Tech degree in Biotechnology, Biochemical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering with a minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage including all subjects) or a CGPA of 6.5 on a 10-point scale can also apply. IISER BS-MS (All IISERs) Dual degree students with CGPA >= 8.0 are eligible without the essential eligibility criteria listed in the right column.	·       Qualified for JGEEBILS 2026 (or) GATE -Life Sciences, GATE-Biotechnology, (or) Any other national fellowship. ·       Candidates should provide evidence of conducting high-quality research during their Master’s in molecular and cell biology.

Application Procedure:

Only online applications will be accepted. Applicants can submit their forms for the Biology discipline in the following link:

https://form.jotform.com/261892207392462

 

CHEMISTRY

Project Title: Direct selection of RNA based fluorescent light-up aptamer (FLAP) biosensors using microfluidics to detect and study the metabolite dynamics in live cells.

Project PI from IISER Tirupati: Dr. Ashwani Sharma

Project Co-PI from BITS Pilani (Hyderabad Campus): Dr. Jayaprakash K S

Specific area of research: Chemical biology, Organic Chemistry, Biotechnology, Chemical engineering and related disciplines.

Visit the following website for further details about PI and Co-PI:
https://www.iisertirupati.ac.in/faculty-details/?faculty_id=Che-7&id=2376
https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/hyderabad/jayaprakash-k-s/

Important Dates:

Opening date of online application: July 09, 2026

Closing date of online application: July 23, 2026

Announcement of candidates shortlisted for interview: July 24, 2026 (Tentative)

Interview of shortlisted candidates: July 25-26, 2026 (Tentative)

Announcement of interview results: July 27, 2026 (Tentative)

Joining date for Ph.D. Program: 1^st week of August, 2026 (Tentative)

 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR CHEMISTRY:

Discipline	Minimum Eligibility Criteria	Essential Eligibility Criteria
Chemistry	Students with a minimum 55% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; with all subjects) or CGPA 6.0 on a 10-point scale in a Master’s degree in Chemistry/Biological Sciences or ME/M.Tech or any equivalent degree in the relevant disciplines. Candidates with BE/B.Tech degree in Biotechnology, Biochemical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering with a minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage including all subjects) or a CGPA of 6.5 on a 10-point scale can also apply. IISER BS-MS (All IISERs) Dual degree students with CGPA >= 8.0 are eligible without the essential eligibility criteria listed in the right column.	Qualified for CSIR/UGC/DBT/ICMR-JRF, INSPIRE PhD Fellowships, CSIR-NET-LS/PhD. GATE Chemistry, GATE -Life Sciences, GATE-Biotechnology, Any other National Fellowships

 

Application Procedure:

Only online applications will be accepted. Applicants can submit their forms for the Chemistry discipline in the following link:

https://form.jotform.com/261891771990471

MATHEMATICS

Project Title: Solving Stochastic Heat Equations: From Classical Methods to Neural Network-Based Methods

About the Project: Stochastic heat equations arise in a wide range of scientific and engineering applications including climate science, fluid dynamics, biology, financial mathematics, and uncertainty quantification. Solving these equations efficiently remains a major computational challenge, particularly in high-dimensional settings.

This research project aims to develop next-generation numerical algorithms by integrating classical finite element methods with modern deep learning techniques.

The project combines rigorous mathematical analysis with high-performance scientific computing and machine learning to develop accurate and scalable algorithms for stochastic partial differential equations.

Research Areas: Numerical Analysis, Partial Differential Equations

Supervisors:

Principal Investigator (PI)

Dr. Ramesh Chandra Sau

Assistant Professor

Department of Mathematics

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati

Email: rcsau@labs.iisertirupati.ac.in

Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI)

Dr. Gujji Murali Mohan Reddy

Associate Professor

Department of Mathematics

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Email: gmmreddy@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

Visit the following website for further details:  

https://sites.google.com/view/rameshsau/home

https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/hyderabad/gujji-murali-mohan-reddy/

Important Dates:

Opening date of online application: July 09, 2026

Closing date of online application: July 23, 2026

Announcement of candidates shortlisted for interview: July 24, 2026 (Tentative)

Interview of shortlisted candidates: July 25-26, 2026 (Tentative)

Announcement of interview results: July 27, 2026 (Tentative)

Joining date for Ph.D. Program: 1^st week of August, 2026 (Tentative)

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA MATHEMATICS

Discipline	Minimum Eligibility Criteria	Desirable Eligibility Criteria
Mathematics	Students with a minimum 55% marks in aggregate (overall percentage including all subjects) or CGPA 6.0 on a 10-point scale in Master’s degree in any branch of Science: Physics/ Mathematics/ Statistics/ Computer Sciences/ M.E./ M.Tech. or any equivalent degree. Candidates with B.E./ B.Tech degree with minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage including all subjects) or a CGPA of 6.5 on a 10-point scale can also apply. IISER BS-MS (All IISERs) Dual degree students with CGPA >= 8.0 are eligible without the additional eligibility criteria listed in the right column.	Qualified for CSIR-LS / CSIR-JRF / UGC-LS / UGC-JRF / INSPIRE PHD / NBHM PHD / GATE(MA) or Any other National Fellowship Students with excellent academic credentials who are not recipients of a national level fellowship are also encouraged to apply.

Application Procedure:

Only online applications will be accepted. Applicants can submit their forms for the Mathematics discipline in the following link:

https://form.jotform.com/261891291282462

 

PHYSICS

Soft and Active Matter Physics

Visit the following website for further details:
https://www.iisertirupati.ac.in/people/faculty/
https://iisertirupati.ac.in/physics/index.html

Important Dates:

Opening date of online application: July 09, 2026

Closing date of online application: July 23, 2026

Announcement of candidates shortlisted for interview: July 24, 2026 (Tentative)

Interview of shortlisted candidates: July 25-26, 2026 (Tentative)

Announcement of interview results: July 27, 2026 (Tentative)

Joining date for Ph.D. Program: 1^st week of August, 2026 (Tentative)

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR PHYSICS:

Discipline	Minimum Eligibility Criteria	Essential Eligibility Criteria
Physics	Students with a minimum 55% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in majoring subject) or CGPA 6.0 on a 10-point scale in a Master’s degree in any branch of Science: Physics/Astronomy & Astrophysics/Chemistry/Mathematics/Biology or M.E./M.Tech. or any equivalent degree. Candidates with BE/B.Tech degree with a minimum 60% marks in aggregate (overall percentage; not only in majoring subject) or a CGPA of 6.5 on a 10-point scale can also apply. IISER BS-MS (All IISERs) Dual degree students with CGPA >= 8.0 are eligible without the essential eligibility criteria listed in the right column.	Awarded CSIR-JRF or UGC-JRF or INSPIRE PhD (or) Qualified in JEST 2025/2026 (or) Qualified in GATE (or) Any other National Level Examination

 

Application Procedure:

Only online applications will be accepted. Applicants can submit their forms for the Physics discipline in the following link:

https://form.jotform.com/261891497863475

General Information to the Applicants:

1. The candidate MUST have qualified at least ONE of the above-mentioned essential eligibility criteria in relevant discipline.
2. The fellowships/scores/ranks must be valid at the time of joining the course.
3. For candidates belonging to SC/ST, PWD and KM category, the percentage of marks may be relaxed by 5% or 0.5 in the case of CGPA.
4. Candidates in the final year of their qualifying degree (as mentioned in the minimum criteria) are also eligible to apply. However, their final selection is subject to their successful completion of the qualifying degree with the above-mentioned requirements at the time of admission. A provisional degree certificate is mandatory at the time of admission.
5. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.

 

Selection Procedure:

The shortlisted candidates will be called for an interview, and the final selection is based on interview performance.

TA will be provided to the SC/ST/PWD students appearing for the interview as per the institute norms.

Applying does not automatically guarantee that a candidate will be shortlisted for an interview.

The respective departments may use additional criteria (based on academic performance and/or performance in the national level tests) to shortlist candidates for interviews.

Fellowship:

Upon selection and subsequently joining the PhD program, candidates who do not possess any CSIR, DBT, and INSPIRE will be eligible for institute fellowship at par with CSIR, DBT, etc., but without HRA and Contingency components.

Please Note:

All communication with candidates will be by email only.

Kindly check this website for periodic updates.

In case of any application-related specific queries, please contact the respective departments with your application number mentioned in the subject at the following email addresses:

• bioadmissions@labs.iisertirupati.ac.in
•  a.sharma@labs.iisertirupati.ac.in/u>
• physphdselection@labs.iisertirupati.ac.in
• mathphdselection@iisertirupati.ac.in

 

Age Relaxation:

Preferably not more than 30 years at the time of joining. Age relaxation of 3 years will be given for OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) and 5 years for SC/ST/PWD/Female candidates as per GOI norms. Candidates belonging to the reserved category will have to submit relevant certificates if selected. Relaxation may also be given whenever suitable candidates are not available, in exceptional circumstances.