National Institute of Advanced Studies

Last updated

National Institute of Advanced Studies
National Institute of Advanced Studies Logo.png
Type
  • Autonomous Research Institute
  • Institute of Exceptional Repute
Established20 June 1988 (20 June 1988)
Founder
Director Shailesh Nayak
Location
Bengaluru
,
Karnataka
,
India

13°01′11″N77°33′58″E / 13.01978°N 77.56605°E / 13.01978; 77.56605
Website www.nias.res.in

National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) is a premier institute in India engaged in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research in natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. [1] It was founded by J. R. D. Tata for providing an avenue for administrators, managers and social leaders for interaction and exchange of information with notable academics in the areas of science, arts and humanities. With these objectives, the institute conducts multi-level research programmes and mentors talented doctoral students. The institution, based in Bengaluru, [2] in the south Indian state of Karnataka, started functioning on 20 June 1988 with Dr. Raja Ramanna as its founder director. [1] [3]

Contents

Overview

The National Institute of Advanced Studies was conceived by Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, a businessman and a pioneer of Indian aviation, [4] who envisaged the institute to act as a meeting ground for the intellectuals of India for exchange views and ideas. The institute came into being on 20 June 1988, registered as a society under the Karnataka Societies Registration Regulation Act with Raja Ramanna, the Indian physicist, as the founder director. During a short period when he joined the central government as a Minister of State, C. N. R. Rao held the responsibilities of the director as the honorary director (pro tempore). [5] Ramanna returned to NIAS and stayed with the institute until his superannuation in July 1997 to hand over the directorship to Roddam Narasimha who headed NIAS until March 2004. The next director, K. Kasturirangan, was with NIAS from April 2004 until August 2009 and the leadership changed hands to V. S. Ramamurthy, [6] in September 2009. Baldev Raj became the director of the institute in 2014, and served the office until his untimely demise on January 6, 2018. V. S. Ramamurthy, the former director of the institute was called in as the interim director. Shailesh Nayak took the charge of the institute's directorship in March 2018.

National Institute of Advanced Studies is involved in four areas of activities such as research, analysis, publications and education. [5] It acts as a platform for advanced research in the disciplines of sciences, arts, and humanities. The research findings are compiled and disseminated through printed literature, personal interactions, lectures and conferences. The centre works as a forum for the social and political leaders and academics to interact with each other for interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge and information. Besides regular courses, it also started PhD programmes in 2004. [5]

NIAS is located within the campus of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, with an extent of five acres earmarked for the institute's activities. The campus houses lecture halls, conference facilities, theatre and an auditorium, J. R. D. Tata Auditorium, named after its founder. [5] The institute maintains a well stocked library and has accommodation facilities for guests and visitors. [5]

Objectives

The institute is mandated with a mission to: [7]

Divisions

The academic activities of the institute are segmented into four schools. Each school functions as a separate division and has a host of permanent teaching faculty and a set of visiting professors.

School of Conflict and Security Studies This new School has come into being in May 2016 and covers research in areas related to conflict resolution, strategy and security issues. Programmes of the School focus on major conflicts that affect India or have the potential to do so; and international strategic and geopolitical issues that have bearing on India's national security.

School of Humanities is a centre for advanced research in the disciplines of philosophy, psychology, literature, fine arts and culture. The school offers research facilities in:

School of Social Sciences is a research platform but is also engaged in teaching, outreach, advocacy and consultancy. It undertakes research cum outreach projects in the areas of education, gender, inequality, governance, urbanization and development. It has interests in the topics of globalization, economic sociology and organizations.

School of Natural Sciences and Engineering is the division which focuses on energy, environment, climate change, complex systems, ecology, animal behaviour, cognition and conservation biology. Studies are conducted on wildlife conservation and cognitive studies of primates. Research has been carried out number theory, artificial intelligence, soft computing, and mathematical modelling of complex chaotic systems.

Courses

The institute offers several courses through four of its schools and many programmes anchored by the institute. Listed below are few of the many interdisciplinary courses offered at the institute.

  1. Understanding Theories of Conflict
  2. Global Politics
  3. Maritime Security
  4. GIS application in security
  1. Course title: Relevance of Psychology
  2. Behavior, Cognition and Consciousness: An Introduction
  3. Core course in Humanities
  4. Effective Communication and Interpersonal Intelligence
  1. Energy Systems: Technology and Policy
  2. Introduction to Dynamical Systems Theory
  1. Anthropology of circulation and value
  2. Gifted Education
  3. Perspectives in Education Research
  4. Core course in Social Sciences

Notable faculty

Several notable personalities have served as the members of faculty at NIAS, some of whom have been awarded the highest civilian awards in the country. [8] The institute hosts four chairs of excellence namely JRD Tata Chair, Raja Ramanna Chair, Homi Bhabha Chair and T. V. Raman Pai chair. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raja Ramanna</span> Indian physicist

Raja Ramanna was an Indian physicist who is best known for his role in India's nuclear program during its early stages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. G. K. Menon</span> Indian physicist

Mambillikalathil Govind Kumar Menon also known as M. G. K. Menon, was a physicist and policy maker from India. He had a prominent role in the development of science and technology in India over four decades. One of his most important contributions was nurturing the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, which his mentor Homi J. Bhabha founded in 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan</span> Indian space scientist

Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan is an Indian space scientist who headed the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from 1994 to 2003. He is presently Chancellor of Central University of Rajasthan and NIIT University. He is the former chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and the chairman of Karnataka Knowledge Commission. He is a former member of the Rajya Sabha (2003–09) and a former member of the now defunct Planning Commission of India. He was also the director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, from April 2004 to 2009. He is a recipient of the three major civilian awards from the Government of India: the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan.

Delhi School of Economics (DSE), popularly referred to as D School, is an institution of higher learning within the University of Delhi. The Delhi School of Economics is situated in University of Delhi's North Campus in Maurice Nagar. Established in 1949, the campus of the Delhi School of Economics houses the University of Delhi's departments of Economics, Sociology, Geography and Commerce, as well as the Ratan Tata Library. Out of the four academic departments, the Departments of Economics, Sociology and Geography come under the Faculty of Social Sciences, while the Department of Commerce comes under the Faculty of Commerce and Business Studies.

Homi Nusserwanji Sethna was an Indian nuclear scientist and a chemical engineer, gaining international fame as the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (India) during the time when the first nuclear test, codename Smiling Buddha in Pokhran Test Range in 1974 was conducted. He was the primary and central figure in India's civilian nuclear program as well as the construction of nuclear power plants. In 1991, he was appointed as Sheriff of Mumbai.

Tarlok Singh was member of the Planning Commission of India and a civil servant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. R. Ramanathan</span> Indian physicist and meteorologist (1893 – 1984)

Kalpathi Ramakrishna Ramanathan was an Indian physicist and meteorologist. He was the first Director of Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. From 1954 to 1957, Ramanathan was President of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). Ramanathan was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1965 and Padma Vibhushan in 1976.

Padmanabhan Krishnagopala Iyengar, was an Indian nuclear physicist who is widely known for his central role in the development of the nuclear program of India. Iyengar previously served as the director of BARC and former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India, he raised his voice and opposition against the nuclear agreement between India and the United States and expressed that the deal favoured the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bikash Sinha</span> Indian physicist (1945–2023)

Bikash Sinha was an Indian physicist who was active in the fields of nuclear physics and high energy physics. Sinha was the director of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and the chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur in June 2005. He was also a member of scientific advisory board to the Prime Minister of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Clubwala Jadhav</span> Indian philanthropist

Mary Clubwala Jadhav MBE (1909–1975) was an Indian philanthropist.

Shashikumar Madhusudan Chitre FNA, FASc, FNASc, FRAS was an Indian mathematician and astrophysicist, known for his research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The Government of India honored him, in 2012, with Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, for his services to the sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">V. S. Ramamurthy</span> Indian nuclear physicist (born 1942)

Valangiman Subramanian Ramamurthy is an Indian nuclear physicist with a broad range of contributions from basic research to Science and Engineering administration.Prof.Ramamurthy started his career in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai in the year 1963. He made important research contributions in the area of nuclear fission, medium energy heavy ion reactions, statistical and thermodynamic properties of nuclei and low energy accelerator applications. During the period 1995-2006, Prof.Ramamurthy was fully involved in Science administration as Secretary to Government of India, Department of Science and Technology, (DST), New Delhi.Other important assignments held by him include Director, Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, (1989-1995), DAE Homi Bhabha Chair in the Inter-University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi (2006-2010), and Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru (2009-2014). He is a former chairman of the Recruitment and Assessment Board of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and has served as a member of the design team of the first Indian nuclear experiment in Pokhran on 18 May 1974. The Government of India awarded him the third highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Bhushan in 2005.

Badanaval Venkatasubba Sreekantan was an Indian high-energy astrophysicist and a former associate of Homi J. Bhabha at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). He was also a Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

Dilip Devidas Bhawalkar is an Indian optical physicist and the founder director of the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT), an institute under the Department of Atomic Energy, serving as a centre for higher studies in the fields of lasers and particle accelerators. He is credited with pioneering research in optics and lasers in India and is reported to have contributed in making CAT a partner in the International Linear Collider and Large Hadron Collider experiments of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the highest Indian award in science and technology. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 2000.

Shasanka Mohan Roy is an Indian quantum physicist and a Raja Ramanna fellow of the Department of Atomic Energy at the School of Physical Sciences of Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is also a former chair of the Theoretical Physics Group Committee at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Known for developing Exact Integral Equation on pion-pion dynamics, also called Roy's equations, and his work on Bell inequalities, Roy is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies – Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, and National Academy of Sciences, India – as well as The World Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded Roy the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to Physical Sciences in 1981.

Shyam Sunder Kapoor is an Indian nuclear physicist and a former director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Known for his research on fission and heavy-ion physics, Kapoor is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies – Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Sciences, India – as well as the Institute of Physics. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to Physical Sciences in 1983.

Defence Research & Development Service (DRDS) is a Central Group 'A' Civil Service of the Government of India. DRDS scientists are Gazetted defence-civilian officers under the Ministry of Defence. They are responsible for developing new technologies and military hardware for the Indian defence and security forces.

References

  1. 1 2 "Dorabji Trust profile". Dorabji Trust. 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  2. ↑ "ResearchGate profile". 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "Raja Ramanna Biography". iLove India. 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  4. ↑ "Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "History" (PDF). NIAS. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  6. ↑ "V. S. Ramamurthy". Indian National Science Academy. 2015. Archived from the original on 12 July 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  7. ↑ "Mission". NIAS. 2015. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Faculty". NIAS. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  9. ↑ "Biography" (PDF). Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research. 3 June 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.