I. About TIFR
1. Introduction
The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), founded in 1945, is
an aided institution funded by the Government of India through the
Department of Atomic Energy. Its mission is to carry out world-class
research in all areas of the fundamental sciences. It is committed to
training young researchers and is a Deemed University. The main campus
of TIFR is in Mumbai and it has Centres, Field Stations and Facilities
spread across India.2. History
TIFR was founded by the legendary Indian scientist Dr Homi Jehangir
Bhabha. With support from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the
Government of Bombay Presidency, TIFR began to function from rented
premises at Kenilworth, a bungalow on Peddar Road in Bombay. It grew
rapidly in the first few years and soon moved to the much larger Old
Yacht Club premises. In 1954 Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for
TIFR's permanent campus at Colaba, Mumbai on a beautiful site on the
seashore on land transferred from the Ministry of Defence. Another
site across the road was provided for the Institute's housing. The new
buildings were inaugurated by Prime Minister Nehru in 1962.Initially, the main research areas were Cosmic Rays and High Energy
Physics, Theoretical Physics, and Mathematics. Soon after, the
Institute extended its activities to include fields such as Nuclear
Physics, Nuclear and Electron Magnetism, Solid State (now Condensed
Matter) Physics, Computer Science, Geophysics, and later Molecular
Biology, Radio, Infrared, and X-ray Astronomy, Theoretical
Astrophysics, and Science Education.Soon after founding TIFR, Dr Homi Bhabha launched the nation’s
research and development activity in the area of atomic energy.
Technology for this purpose, including electronics, was initially
developed at TIFR, which is therefore acknowledged as the “cradle” of
India’s atomic energy programme.India's first computer (TIFRAC) was designed and constructed at TIFR.
The contribution of TIFR to the development of advanced technology in
India goes much beyond this to include other emerging fields such as
Accelerators, Microwave Communications, Software Technology,
Semiconductor Technology, Chemical Sciences and Educational Research.
Some of these groups later became the nuclei of dedicated
organizations, such as the National Centre for Software Technology
(NCST), Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) and the microwave
engineering research laboratory (SAMEER).3. Growth
As TIFR expanded the scope of its activities it also grew
geographically, developing Centres, Field Stations and Research
Facilities in different parts of the country. The four Centres of TlFR
today are: the National Centre of Biological Sciences (NCBS),
Bangalore; the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics in (NCRA) Pune,
the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), Anushaktinagar,
Mumbai, and the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS),
due to come up in Bangalore. In addition, the Centre for Applicable
Mathematics (CAM) is located in Bangalore. Apart from its centres, TIFR also has large facilities and field
stations located across the country: The Cosmic Ray Laboratory, (CRL),
Ooty; the Radio Astronomy Centre (RAC), Ooty, the Gravitation
Laboratory, Gauribidnur, Karnataka, the Giant Metre-wave Radio
Telescope (GMRT), Khodad, Maharashtra, the High Energy Gamma Ray
Observatory, Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh; and the Balloon Facility,
Hyderabad. TIFR runs a Pelletron Accelerator Facility with a
superconducting LINAC Booster and the National Facility for High-Field
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. The Institute plays a leading role in
major national projects such as the ASTROSAT mission of ISRO, with
instruments for X-ray and UV astronomy, and the India Neutrino
Observatory (INO) which is being built for the large-scale underground
detection of neutrinos. TIFR actively participates in large-scale
international projects such as the LHC in CERN, Geneva and the Belle
experiment at KEK, Japan.TIFR has grown significantly during every decade since its founding.
From its original location on 6000 square feet of rented premises at
Kenilworth, it expanded six-fold in its first four years to occupy
35,000 square feet at the Old Yacht Club buildings. By the early
1950’s it started to function from military barracks in Navy Nagar
even before buildings came up on the two 15-acre sites that would
become the location of its permanent campus. Subsequently the
Institute’s Centres started to function from many different locations:
a 5.5-acre site for HBCSE at Mankhurd, Mumbai; a 15-acre site for NCRA
at Pune; a 20-acre site for NCBS at Bangalore, a 4.5-acre site for the
NCBS hostel and CAM, and most recently a 17-acre site for ICTS in
north Bangalore. The Facilities and Field Stations are also spread out
over locations across the country, including a 98-acre site for the
Radio Astronomy Centre (RAC), Ooty, a 40-acre site for the Gravitation
Laboratory, Gauribidnur, Karnataka and a 400-acre site for the Giant
Metre-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT), Khodad, Maharashtra.All these dedicated Centres and Facilities were set up in response to
definite scientific needs. The need in today’s emerging landscape,
however, is to interconnect different strands of scientific activity
in one campus. The new campus at Hyderabad is being established for
this purpose. 4. Training of young researchers
A unique feature of TIFR is that its research programmes have
incorporated the training of Ph.D. students in a central way. The
number of students increased steadily over the years, and towards the
end of the 1960s, a Graduate School, offering a number of courses, was
set up. TIFR students received a Ph.D. degree from Bombay University
until 2002, when TIFR was declared a Deemed University and began to
award its own degrees. The wide breadth of activities of TIFR is
covered by the six subject boards: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Biology, Computer & Systems Sciences and Science Education. The
graduate courses are taught at the Colaba campus and the Centres.TIFR research students at Pune and Bangalore also benefit from
cooperation with neighbouring institutions, such as IUCAA, Pune
University and IISER in Pune and the Indian Institute of Science in
Bangalore. Equally, students from those institutions can attend
lectures in the TIFR graduate school. At present over 450 postgraduate and doctoral students are enrolled in
TIFR’s Deemed University. Students graduating from TIFR are well
trained to take up challenging careers in science (academic as well as
application-oriented) and other fields. Many former TIFR students are
today faculty members at leading universities in India and abroad.
TIFR is proud of this contribution to the nation's pool of highly
skilled researchers. Our desire to enhance this programme even further
is another of the motivations to set up a new campus.
II. TIFR Hyderabad
1. The Vision
In its 2010 report, the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister
states that for India to become a knowledge-based society and a global
leader in scientific research, it is essential to strengthen
scientific infrastructure, make all efforts to draw the brightest
minds to scientific research, and create institutions of the highest
standards of excellence.Today, at a time when India aspires to become a world leader in
science, TIFR truly symbolises the advances that our nation has made
at the frontiers of scientific research. At the threshold of rapid
growth, India has the ability to become a significant creator and user
of scientific knowledge; the realization of this ability is expected
to power a surge of development and economic growth. There is a strong
potential for this to happen, as we are a youthful country with a
strong commitment to support science and its applications.As part of this national effort, TIFR now proposes to expand in a
major way by setting up a new campus. The development of a new campus
at this critical juncture will allow TIFR to keep intact its essential
character, with a wide set of diverse but individually excellent
programs, and a readiness to embark on ambitious new projects as and
when necessary.The new campus at Hyderabad will enable the commencement of new
activities as well as the expansion of existing activities. The vision
for the new campus is based on an integrated view of modern science,
springing from the priorities and aspirations of our nation today.With its tradition of engaging with research at the frontiers,
training researchers at the highest level, and successfully seeding
new initiatives in its different national centres, TIFR is uniquely
poised to contribute to the national effort in a strong and
distinctive way.This backdrop motivates the three main elements of the vision of
TIFR’s new campus:•the unification of traditional disciplines under common themes,
while maintaining the rigour that characterizes individual
disciplines.
•the convergence of fundamental and applied sciences, facilitating
the emergence of new technologies.
•the unification of teaching and research in ways that reinforce and
elevate each other.A large number of young scientists will join this enterprise, thus
providing a valuable resource of trained research leaders for India in
the 21st century. TIFR Hyderabad is expected to eventually have a
strength of 1250 to 1500 doctoral students, several hundred
post-doctoral fellows, and a faculty strength of 250. It will have a
very strong visitors’ programme with a special focus on doctoral
students and researchers from the developing nations. After an extensive search in various locations in the country, TIFR
finally decided to set up its new campus on a site of 209 acres in the
city of Hyderabad. The Government of Andhra Pradesh issued a G.O. on
28 January 2009 allotting this land to TIFR. The site adjoins the
University of Hyderabad, with whom TIFR looks forward to a
long-lasting academic partnership involving mutually beneficial
collaborations. An MOU outlining a plan for academic links between the
two institutions was signed in November 2008 between the University of
Hyderabad and TIFR in the presence of the then CM of Andhra Pradesh.2. The Concept
The new campus will have a thrust centered on basic research in areas
which are as critical to a nation’s progress today as nuclear science
was in the 1950s. The national and international scene is of course
very different in 2010. But, as was the case then, there are areas of
basic science intimately linked to the major concerns of the times
such as, for example, health, energy, and communication. Research
related to these themes is seeing world-wide progress at an ever
increasing rate. The country needs a strong base in these areas to
successfully create knowledge, and contribute to and compete in the
new developments. This venture requires a careful choice of areas and
faculty, and a commitment to attract and train a large number of
talented and motivated research students at an advanced level. The
thrust cannot be in isolation – it must both add value to and draw
strength from educational, research, and development programmes in
other institutions, including but by no means limited to those in the
TIFR system.In the initial years the science at the new centre is intended to
focus on themes carefully chosen within and across Optical Science,
Condensed Matter, Materials and Chemistry, and the Life Sciences, or
in other words, “Light, Matter and Life”. Each of these themes is of
great contemporary importance, and the institute is well placed to
develop them on a significant scale with high impact. Importantly,
these themes have close interconnections with each other. Moreover,
they are closely linked to areas of health, energy and communication
mentioned above. Therefore a strong linkage with potential
applications will be built in from the start.These themes will attract the younger generation of scientists in
India, as they have all over the world. It is envisaged that there
would be a large number of graduate students, postdoctoral
researchers, and visitors. This will enhance many-fold the
contribution that TIFR already makes to the pool of highly skilled
scientific manpower in the country, in areas of national needs in the
years to come. Moreover, it is proposed to launch a vigorous programme
in science education, drawing on our successful experience with the
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. In particular, the proximity
of vibrant research programmes on campus would provide an ideal
setting for participating students and teachers. The campus of TIFR Hyderabad adjoins that of the University of
Hyderabad, one of India's highest rated Central Universities. This
proximity is bound to generate synergy in research and in conducting
advanced academic programmes, such as workshops, conferences, and
courses. The desire for close academic contact has led to the signing
of an MoU between the two institutions. Many other academic
institutions in Hyderabad also have interests overlapping with the
proposed themes and fruitful interactions will be encouraged. The campus will have its academic areas interspersed with open green
areas. A phased plan for growth is a key feature of space utilization.
While the exact pattern of growth over many decades cannot be
precisely foreseen, we will allow for such developments in the master
plan in such a way as to facilitate contiguous expansion of related
areas in the future.In brief, the proposed campus will pursue fundamental knowledge in
critical areas, identify, attract, and nurture talent to generate a
strong force of young scientists equipped to face the challenges of
the twenty first century, and open its doors to work jointly with
like-minded individuals and institutions.The academic faculty of TIFR Hyderabad is envisaged to reach about 250
eventually. In the initial stages the campus will see the initiation
of activities largely in the theme areas concerned with Light, Matter
and Life. Small groups in chemistry, biology, lasers and optics,
magnetic resonance, condensed matter and soft matter are ready to
initiate this stage which is planned around a total strength of about
15-20 faculty members including both current TIFR staff moving to
Hyderabad and new recruits in this period.This nucleus will be well supported from existing TIFR campuses, but
will, from the outset, evolve structures and strategies suited to the
new campus, keeping in mind the overall vision outlined above. In
terms of infrastructure, a well-equipped single inter-disciplinary
laboratory building is planned, tentatively to be called the “TIFR
Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences”, which will help get the
scientific programmes off to a good start. All scientists and
students, from all disciplines, will share this building and
facilities. Teaching and the training of research students will form a
core activity right from the start.Subsequently the intention is to consolidate and grow the above themes
with the establishment of vigorous groups with a thrust within and
across fields, and to expand the graduate student teaching and
research programmes strongly. A few new emerging areas may also be
initiated as and when their appropriateness and importance comes to be
realised. Some new academic buildings (for instance, the new NMR
centre) would come up in a planned manner, along with housing for
faculty and staff, and hostels for students.From our experience with TIFR Mumbai, we expect that in TIFR Hyderabad
too there will eventually be a diversification of themes and an
approach to a steady state in which there is a broad coverage of
topics from all the sciences, mathematics and related areas. This
steady state will be a dynamic one, with the choice of topics dictated
by new frontiers emerging and older frontiers receding. Totally new
directions, which cannot be envisaged today, are bound to emerge and
will be initiated. The number of faculty is projected to grow to
around 250, with twice the number of postdoctoral fellows, five to six
times the number of students and an appropriate number of technical
support staff. 3. The Science
In his original proposal to the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, Homi Bhabha
described the proposed institute as '...but an embryo..' from which he
hoped to build… 'a school of physics comparable to the best anywhere'.
The progress of the last sixty years detailed in the appendix shows
how TIFR has successfully carried forward this vision. To continue
this process more than half a century later, one has to account for
and build on the radical changes that the scientific enterprise has
undergone. Today, more than ever, the focus is on attracting and
redeploying talent and resources in diverse fields to address rapidly
emerging and evolving interdisciplinary problems, often arising from
real life applications. TIFR is fully aware of the need to adapt to
this scenario while continuing to capitalize on its traditional
strengths namely the ability to choose and tackle questions that cut
across wide areas of science, with an array of methodologies and cross
fertilization. When TIFR Hyderabad reaches a steady state we expect that research
programmes would involve frontier areas which cut across all the major
disciplines of science, mathematics and related areas. But on a
shorter timescale it would be beneficial to have a larger emphasis on
a smaller set of areas, in order to have a degree of coherence, and to
make a significant impact. The listing arrived at is not closed; other
topics whose appropriateness and importance is recognized later will
be taken up as the campus grows. The first stage of TIFR Hyderabad will begin with the establishment of
the TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Science (TCIS). The Centre will
engage primarily in the research and teaching of interdisciplinary
sciences at the frontiers. There will also be a presence of the
well-established disciplines. In very broad terms the research
programmes to be taken up initially in the new campus will involve
Light, Matter and Life, referring to, respectively, Optical Science,
Condensed Matter, Materials and Chemistry, and Life Sciences, and
especially activities at the border of each pair. The TCIS will
reflect activity in each area, and will interconnect and unify the
programmes in all three fields. These points are detailed below. • Light: Optical Science
High power lasers generate ultra-intense fields, whose interaction
with matter results in new regimes of behavior. TIFR is a key player
in this area, with notable results on the generation of giant,
ultrashort magnetic pulses and high brightness X-ray sources. Besides
its intrinsic interest, this kind of high energy-density physics has
an impact on laser fusion, laboratory astrophysics and novel particle
acceleration schemes. It is planned to launch the next phase of high
light-intensity laser physics derived from petawatt, femtosecond laser
pulses in the new campus. This would mark TIFR’s entry into the field
of ‘extreme light’, which involves highly nonperturbative physics at
high intensity and on sub-picosecond timescales. From a broader perspective, all aspects of classical and quantum
optics are undergoing rapid progress worldwide. The study of light, as
also interactions between light and matter in all states – atomic,
molecular, condensed, has seen explosive growth, and the twenty first
century could well belong as much to the photon as the twentieth did
to the electron. Some of the key areas that TIFR can initiate using
optical techniques are related to quantum information processing,
communication, and cryptography, areas which are not just
fundamentally exciting but rich in potential applications.
Establishing a strong group in selected aspects of these areas will be
very fruitful scientifically, and would pay rich dividends in
applications, in a manner similar to TIFR's earlier ventures into
computing, microwave electronics, etc.• Matter: Condensed Matter, Materials and Chemistry
“Soft matter” encompasses a wide range of systems and phenomena, and
the challenge is to unravel the collective nonlinearities which give
rise to complex, interesting, and often completely new, behavior. In
recent years, the subject has seen the coming together of several
traditional disciplines in science and engineering, namely, chemistry,
chemical engineering, physics, mechanical engineering, biology and
biotechnology in forging an exciting area of work. Current efforts at
TIFR involve studying complex phenomena in a range of systems −
colloidal systems, porous media and surfactant systems. The
experimental probes used include micro-rheology as well as several
light-based techniques such as optical tweezers, various forms of
video-microscopy, and dynamic light scattering. It is planned to grow
this area strongly in the new campus, including areas such as granular
media and fluids in constrained and random media, the aim being to
uncover basic physics related to hydrodynamics, both linear and
nonlinear, and statistical mechanics, both in and away from
equilibrium. Often, the science behind familiar phenomena such as
adhesion or lubrication is quite intricate, and unraveling this has
large potential for applications relevant for industry. This will be
explored and exploited.Traditional ‘hard’ (i.e. solid state) condensed matter physics
continues to provide new surprises, as a result of quite subtle
correlations between electrons. Experimental and theoretical studies
of these systems at TIFR have shed light on these correlations, and
are expected to play an important role in the new campus. An example
is state-of-the-art precision electron spectroscopy, which provides a
powerful tool to probe electronic correlations. Another set of
frontiers is envisaged under the general title ‘Matter under extreme
conditions’, which refers to extremes of pressure, temperature, and
magnetic field. Ordinary matter behaves quite extraordinarily under
such extreme conditions and TIFR intends to initiate some of these
studies in the new campus.Many of the advances in condensed matter physics, soft and hard, have
come from the ability to synthesize novel materials, an example being
the borocarbide superconductors. This tradition will be strengthened
in the new campus. Further, TIFR has a chemical sciences group which
grew from the early chemical physics tradition. We now propose, by
contrast, to establish a synthetic and materials chemistry programme
which will be a logical follow up of the strong chemical sciences
activity, but also interface with the active programmes in other areas
such as condensed matter. Activities, ongoing and envisaged, range
from the synthesis of novel inorganic nanomaterials in the form of
thin films, hollow fibers and spheres, to designing new materials for
solar cells or photocatalytic processes, incorporating self-repair
within a designed photocatalyst.• The Life Sciences
With the advent of quantitative tools in biological measurements and
modeling, the nature of the questions that can be asked and answered
has changed; the need for interdisciplinary approaches is nowhere felt
more strongly than in the life sciences. Work performed at TIFR in the
areas of cellular and developmental biology as well as molecular
analyses leading to biological function uses cross disciplinary
techniques and approaches and has made a mark. The introduction of
probes derived from chemistry and physics (many of them based on
light, such as optical tweezers for determining the mechanical
properties of biomolecules, or fluorescence spectroscopy to probe the
dynamics of protein folding) has allowed a quantitative
characterization of the properties of biological molecules. Further,
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies of biological molecules,
begun early at TIFR, have recently been used for the determination of
the structure of extremely large molecular selfassemblies. On another
front, the powerful idea that networks of different sorts (for
example, involving protein interactions or traffic or signaling and
regulation) form frameworks that underlie biological complexity
provides a new paradigm in biological modeling.This sort of interdisciplinary approach will continue to be used in
the new programmes to be taken up at TIFR, Hyderabad. These include
human biology, genomics, systems biology and cellular biology (e.g.
cell division). These topics have natural connections with theoretical
studies of population dynamics, networks and pattern formation. From
the soft matter point of view, biological matter is interesting as it
is ‘active’, and the corresponding studies give quantitative
information, useful for biology. The connections of biology with
information processing, mathematics and engineering (e.g.
biomechanics) will also be developed. Applications to medicine will
include the design of novel chemical probes and sensors for imaging
disease markers. In terms of techniques, programmes in the new campus
will benefit from advanced software methodologies and from recent
breakthroughs in analytical imaging. The plan to move and expand the
NMR facility in Hyderabad will surely strongly benefit the effort in
the life sciences. Finally, in addition to the use of light as a probe
of biological systems, ‘life-light’ interactions hold exciting
prospects which will be explored in the new campus. • Theoretical Sciences
Traditionally, TIFR has had very strong groups in theoretical areas –
mathematics, computer and systems sciences and theoretical physics.
This tradition will be continued in the new campus, and wherever
possible interactions with experiments will be planned for and
encouraged. In the broad fields of statistical physics and quantum
physics, there is excellent potential for theory-experiment cross
fertilization in the Life-Matter-Light programme discussed above. New
theoretical areas planned to be initiated in the new campus include
large data sets, probability theory, dynamical systems, and the
mechanics and dynamics of simple and complex fluids. It is planned to
build high performance computing facilities for existing and new
areas, including computational materials science and fluid dynamics.Though TIFR’s strength is fundamental research, most of the areas
discussed above have also become important worldwide because of their
connection with applications, some of which are major concerns of our
times – health, energy and communication. In that sense, the work at
TIFR is expected to have a clear impact on the national scenario, even
as the work in the early days of TIFR did in the area of nuclear
energy. Therefore, policies and structures will be evolved to allow
this kind of cross fertilisation with applied science, engineering and
medicine.4. Education
As an integral part of launching these new programmes, TIFR is
committed to continue to provide opportunities at the highest level to
young scientists in the country, through graduate course work and
doctoral research projects, and postdoctoral experience. We envisage a
strong increase in the number of faculty members, students and
postdoctoral fellows in the areas above. Further, TIFR will strongly
encourage collaborative research with scientists from universities and
other research establishments in the country with common interests and
programmes. Scientific meetings and workshops at the cutting edge of
various fields and across fields, bringing together the best
researchers from within the country and across the world have always
been an important part of TIFR's functioning. Facilities will be built
to strengthen research and collaboration in all the new areas.For identifying and nurturing talent at the high school and college
level, the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education already has
strong, nationally known programmes. A science education programme in
the new campus would add a new dimension to this effort, as science
teachers and students who participate in programmes at TIFR, Hyderabad
would be able to take advantage of the facilities and ambience of the
new campus, and the proximity of vibrant research programmes would
provide a further impetus to participants, some of whom would
eventually become researchers. Thus the unification of teaching and
research would be symbiotic in achieving the goal of each. The
programmes in the new campus would be aimed at identifying, promoting,
and nurturing scientific talent and motivation among young students,
and generating materials, strategies, and programmes for the science
teaching community. One of the targets would be to create a science
and mathematics curriculum suitable for today’s frontiers of science
and technology, an effort in which the involvement of the larger
community of scientists on campus would help greatly. 5. Faculty, Students and Staff
The key factor which will determine the success of the enterprise is
the quality of the faculty. A very high threshold will be maintained
at all times. For some of the interdisciplinary ventures, an effort
will be made to draw in faculty not only from the traditional basic
sciences, but also from the engineering sciences. The right mix of
outstanding researchers from diverse background is likely to yield
rich dividends. As mentioned above, the long term aim is to reach final permanent
faculty strength of around 250 along with approximately five times
that number of students, and twice that number of postdoctoral
researchers. Technical staff members commensurate with the proposed
scientific activities and an efficient administration are also needed.
There would also be a large visiting population of scientists and
students at all times. The research and training programmes are then
expected to lead to 200 high quality Ph.Ds every year. While the
initial efforts towards starting the academic programmes would be
seeded by some of the very active current faculty of the Institute, we
intend to attract and induct new faculty members of a high calibre to
form the bulk of the academic staff at the new campus. The academic structure of the new campus will evolve in time to meet
its growing needs. However, some desirable features can be stated at
the outset. Being part of the TIFR system will facilitate close
academic links and free movement of students when there are programmes
which would benefit from such interaction. Programmes can involve
multiple centres, sharing resources and expertise, and facilitating
the coming together of researchers on joint projects. There should be
no administrative impediments to free exchange of ideas and
collaborations across disciplines. A dynamic grouping of scientists
will be encouraged, and the formation of rigid boundaries that
separate them will be avoided.A thriving graduate school and the emphasis on a large population of
postdoctoral fellows and visitors, with a wide variety of disciplines
on one campus, all add up to a unique opportunity to create a broad
centre of learning which will attract some of the best young people
from all over the world, as well as scholars in a wide range of
disciplines. Every effort will be made to create an academic
atmosphere, physical environment, and support facilities commensurate
with this ambition.6. The Location
After an extensive search, a suitable site for the new TIFR campus was
identified adjacent to the campus of the Central University of
Hyderabad. This consists of three contiguous plots with a total area
of about 209 acres on the periphery of the campus of the University of
Hyderabad. The State Government of Andhra Pradesh has allotted this
land in favour of TIFR.TIFR has a long standing connection with Hyderabad. TIFR’s Balloon
Facility in Hyderabad was established in 1971, but this activity was
carried out even earlier from Osmania University. Today Hyderabad is
one of the fastest growing metros, with rapid improvements in power,
water supply, roads and other infrastructure. The new international
airport has increased connectivity to the rest of the country and the
world, making Hyderabad an attractive location. Further, it is fast
becoming a knowledge hub, driven by the Information Technology
Industry and a large number of academic institutions and academically
oriented hospitals etc. As part of this trend, recently many
institutions such as IIT and BITS have started new campuses in
Hyderabad. Another advantage of the Hyderabad location is that the new
Vishakhapatnam campus of the DAE would be relatively close by.Establishing a new campus of TIFR in Hyderabad is expected to bring in
a large number of benefits. The location would facilitate
collaborative research with the faculty of other research and
educational institutions in the region, which would also have access
to the facilities in the campus by means of joint programmes. New
initiatives and programmes both in research and education are expected
to arise, complementing and enhancing strengths of the two sides.
Research scholars and faculty from universities and research
institutions in the region would be able to participate in various
TIFR-organized courses and national and international seminars,
symposia and workshops on contemporary areas of science. Lectures
given by distinguished scientists passing through the new campus of
TIFR will be of interest and benefit to faculty and students of
academic institutions in the vicinity. One of the great attractions of the proposed location is the close
proximity to the Central University of Hyderabad, which has very good
schools of Chemistry, Physics, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Computer
and Information Science, and a new school of Engineering Science and
Technology. There is clearly great scope for synergy between the new
campus and the University. In particular, the initial thrust on the
Life-Matter-Light theme should find a resonance with research
programmes at the University as well as other academic institutions in
Hyderabad.To sum up, TIFR’s proposed new campus in Hyderabad will provide
opportunities for researchers of the highest calibre to work together
on important problems, drawing strength from as well as adding
strength to science in the country and the world. The academic
atmosphere and facilities, as well as the insistence on high
standards, will attract the best talent as faculty. In turn, they
would attract, nurture, and train a future generation of young
scientists in exciting areas of fundamental research, with possible
applications in areas of contemporary relevance. In this way, the new
campus would contribute to science on the local, national and
international scale. 7. Conclusion
TIFR had the strongest support of the late Prime Minister Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru at every stage of its growth. In 1954, Pandit Nehru
laid the foundation stone for TIFR's Mumbai campus. It was Pandit
Nehru again who inaugurated the new buildings of the campus on 15
January 1962, when he remarked, memorably: "It is in meeting (these
scientists) and finding out what they have been doing, that I have
felt so hopeful, so optimistic about the future of science in India."
The establishment of TIFR Hyderabad is also profoundly in consonance
with Homi Bhabha's and Pandit Nehru's objectives. For TIFR, it is thus
especially appropriate that the foundation stone of this campus should
be laid in the Bhabha Centenary year.
http://newsunlimited.in/
1. Introduction
The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), founded in 1945, is
an aided institution funded by the Government of India through the
Department of Atomic Energy. Its mission is to carry out world-class
research in all areas of the fundamental sciences. It is committed to
training young researchers and is a Deemed University. The main campus
of TIFR is in Mumbai and it has Centres, Field Stations and Facilities
spread across India.2. History
TIFR was founded by the legendary Indian scientist Dr Homi Jehangir
Bhabha. With support from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the
Government of Bombay Presidency, TIFR began to function from rented
premises at Kenilworth, a bungalow on Peddar Road in Bombay. It grew
rapidly in the first few years and soon moved to the much larger Old
Yacht Club premises. In 1954 Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for
TIFR's permanent campus at Colaba, Mumbai on a beautiful site on the
seashore on land transferred from the Ministry of Defence. Another
site across the road was provided for the Institute's housing. The new
buildings were inaugurated by Prime Minister Nehru in 1962.Initially, the main research areas were Cosmic Rays and High Energy
Physics, Theoretical Physics, and Mathematics. Soon after, the
Institute extended its activities to include fields such as Nuclear
Physics, Nuclear and Electron Magnetism, Solid State (now Condensed
Matter) Physics, Computer Science, Geophysics, and later Molecular
Biology, Radio, Infrared, and X-ray Astronomy, Theoretical
Astrophysics, and Science Education.Soon after founding TIFR, Dr Homi Bhabha launched the nation’s
research and development activity in the area of atomic energy.
Technology for this purpose, including electronics, was initially
developed at TIFR, which is therefore acknowledged as the “cradle” of
India’s atomic energy programme.India's first computer (TIFRAC) was designed and constructed at TIFR.
The contribution of TIFR to the development of advanced technology in
India goes much beyond this to include other emerging fields such as
Accelerators, Microwave Communications, Software Technology,
Semiconductor Technology, Chemical Sciences and Educational Research.
Some of these groups later became the nuclei of dedicated
organizations, such as the National Centre for Software Technology
(NCST), Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) and the microwave
engineering research laboratory (SAMEER).3. Growth
As TIFR expanded the scope of its activities it also grew
geographically, developing Centres, Field Stations and Research
Facilities in different parts of the country. The four Centres of TlFR
today are: the National Centre of Biological Sciences (NCBS),
Bangalore; the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics in (NCRA) Pune,
the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), Anushaktinagar,
Mumbai, and the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS),
due to come up in Bangalore. In addition, the Centre for Applicable
Mathematics (CAM) is located in Bangalore. Apart from its centres, TIFR also has large facilities and field
stations located across the country: The Cosmic Ray Laboratory, (CRL),
Ooty; the Radio Astronomy Centre (RAC), Ooty, the Gravitation
Laboratory, Gauribidnur, Karnataka, the Giant Metre-wave Radio
Telescope (GMRT), Khodad, Maharashtra, the High Energy Gamma Ray
Observatory, Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh; and the Balloon Facility,
Hyderabad. TIFR runs a Pelletron Accelerator Facility with a
superconducting LINAC Booster and the National Facility for High-Field
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. The Institute plays a leading role in
major national projects such as the ASTROSAT mission of ISRO, with
instruments for X-ray and UV astronomy, and the India Neutrino
Observatory (INO) which is being built for the large-scale underground
detection of neutrinos. TIFR actively participates in large-scale
international projects such as the LHC in CERN, Geneva and the Belle
experiment at KEK, Japan.TIFR has grown significantly during every decade since its founding.
From its original location on 6000 square feet of rented premises at
Kenilworth, it expanded six-fold in its first four years to occupy
35,000 square feet at the Old Yacht Club buildings. By the early
1950’s it started to function from military barracks in Navy Nagar
even before buildings came up on the two 15-acre sites that would
become the location of its permanent campus. Subsequently the
Institute’s Centres started to function from many different locations:
a 5.5-acre site for HBCSE at Mankhurd, Mumbai; a 15-acre site for NCRA
at Pune; a 20-acre site for NCBS at Bangalore, a 4.5-acre site for the
NCBS hostel and CAM, and most recently a 17-acre site for ICTS in
north Bangalore. The Facilities and Field Stations are also spread out
over locations across the country, including a 98-acre site for the
Radio Astronomy Centre (RAC), Ooty, a 40-acre site for the Gravitation
Laboratory, Gauribidnur, Karnataka and a 400-acre site for the Giant
Metre-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT), Khodad, Maharashtra.All these dedicated Centres and Facilities were set up in response to
definite scientific needs. The need in today’s emerging landscape,
however, is to interconnect different strands of scientific activity
in one campus. The new campus at Hyderabad is being established for
this purpose. 4. Training of young researchers
A unique feature of TIFR is that its research programmes have
incorporated the training of Ph.D. students in a central way. The
number of students increased steadily over the years, and towards the
end of the 1960s, a Graduate School, offering a number of courses, was
set up. TIFR students received a Ph.D. degree from Bombay University
until 2002, when TIFR was declared a Deemed University and began to
award its own degrees. The wide breadth of activities of TIFR is
covered by the six subject boards: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Biology, Computer & Systems Sciences and Science Education. The
graduate courses are taught at the Colaba campus and the Centres.TIFR research students at Pune and Bangalore also benefit from
cooperation with neighbouring institutions, such as IUCAA, Pune
University and IISER in Pune and the Indian Institute of Science in
Bangalore. Equally, students from those institutions can attend
lectures in the TIFR graduate school. At present over 450 postgraduate and doctoral students are enrolled in
TIFR’s Deemed University. Students graduating from TIFR are well
trained to take up challenging careers in science (academic as well as
application-oriented) and other fields. Many former TIFR students are
today faculty members at leading universities in India and abroad.
TIFR is proud of this contribution to the nation's pool of highly
skilled researchers. Our desire to enhance this programme even further
is another of the motivations to set up a new campus.
II. TIFR Hyderabad
1. The Vision
In its 2010 report, the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister
states that for India to become a knowledge-based society and a global
leader in scientific research, it is essential to strengthen
scientific infrastructure, make all efforts to draw the brightest
minds to scientific research, and create institutions of the highest
standards of excellence.Today, at a time when India aspires to become a world leader in
science, TIFR truly symbolises the advances that our nation has made
at the frontiers of scientific research. At the threshold of rapid
growth, India has the ability to become a significant creator and user
of scientific knowledge; the realization of this ability is expected
to power a surge of development and economic growth. There is a strong
potential for this to happen, as we are a youthful country with a
strong commitment to support science and its applications.As part of this national effort, TIFR now proposes to expand in a
major way by setting up a new campus. The development of a new campus
at this critical juncture will allow TIFR to keep intact its essential
character, with a wide set of diverse but individually excellent
programs, and a readiness to embark on ambitious new projects as and
when necessary.The new campus at Hyderabad will enable the commencement of new
activities as well as the expansion of existing activities. The vision
for the new campus is based on an integrated view of modern science,
springing from the priorities and aspirations of our nation today.With its tradition of engaging with research at the frontiers,
training researchers at the highest level, and successfully seeding
new initiatives in its different national centres, TIFR is uniquely
poised to contribute to the national effort in a strong and
distinctive way.This backdrop motivates the three main elements of the vision of
TIFR’s new campus:•the unification of traditional disciplines under common themes,
while maintaining the rigour that characterizes individual
disciplines.
•the convergence of fundamental and applied sciences, facilitating
the emergence of new technologies.
•the unification of teaching and research in ways that reinforce and
elevate each other.A large number of young scientists will join this enterprise, thus
providing a valuable resource of trained research leaders for India in
the 21st century. TIFR Hyderabad is expected to eventually have a
strength of 1250 to 1500 doctoral students, several hundred
post-doctoral fellows, and a faculty strength of 250. It will have a
very strong visitors’ programme with a special focus on doctoral
students and researchers from the developing nations. After an extensive search in various locations in the country, TIFR
finally decided to set up its new campus on a site of 209 acres in the
city of Hyderabad. The Government of Andhra Pradesh issued a G.O. on
28 January 2009 allotting this land to TIFR. The site adjoins the
University of Hyderabad, with whom TIFR looks forward to a
long-lasting academic partnership involving mutually beneficial
collaborations. An MOU outlining a plan for academic links between the
two institutions was signed in November 2008 between the University of
Hyderabad and TIFR in the presence of the then CM of Andhra Pradesh.2. The Concept
The new campus will have a thrust centered on basic research in areas
which are as critical to a nation’s progress today as nuclear science
was in the 1950s. The national and international scene is of course
very different in 2010. But, as was the case then, there are areas of
basic science intimately linked to the major concerns of the times
such as, for example, health, energy, and communication. Research
related to these themes is seeing world-wide progress at an ever
increasing rate. The country needs a strong base in these areas to
successfully create knowledge, and contribute to and compete in the
new developments. This venture requires a careful choice of areas and
faculty, and a commitment to attract and train a large number of
talented and motivated research students at an advanced level. The
thrust cannot be in isolation – it must both add value to and draw
strength from educational, research, and development programmes in
other institutions, including but by no means limited to those in the
TIFR system.In the initial years the science at the new centre is intended to
focus on themes carefully chosen within and across Optical Science,
Condensed Matter, Materials and Chemistry, and the Life Sciences, or
in other words, “Light, Matter and Life”. Each of these themes is of
great contemporary importance, and the institute is well placed to
develop them on a significant scale with high impact. Importantly,
these themes have close interconnections with each other. Moreover,
they are closely linked to areas of health, energy and communication
mentioned above. Therefore a strong linkage with potential
applications will be built in from the start.These themes will attract the younger generation of scientists in
India, as they have all over the world. It is envisaged that there
would be a large number of graduate students, postdoctoral
researchers, and visitors. This will enhance many-fold the
contribution that TIFR already makes to the pool of highly skilled
scientific manpower in the country, in areas of national needs in the
years to come. Moreover, it is proposed to launch a vigorous programme
in science education, drawing on our successful experience with the
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. In particular, the proximity
of vibrant research programmes on campus would provide an ideal
setting for participating students and teachers. The campus of TIFR Hyderabad adjoins that of the University of
Hyderabad, one of India's highest rated Central Universities. This
proximity is bound to generate synergy in research and in conducting
advanced academic programmes, such as workshops, conferences, and
courses. The desire for close academic contact has led to the signing
of an MoU between the two institutions. Many other academic
institutions in Hyderabad also have interests overlapping with the
proposed themes and fruitful interactions will be encouraged. The campus will have its academic areas interspersed with open green
areas. A phased plan for growth is a key feature of space utilization.
While the exact pattern of growth over many decades cannot be
precisely foreseen, we will allow for such developments in the master
plan in such a way as to facilitate contiguous expansion of related
areas in the future.In brief, the proposed campus will pursue fundamental knowledge in
critical areas, identify, attract, and nurture talent to generate a
strong force of young scientists equipped to face the challenges of
the twenty first century, and open its doors to work jointly with
like-minded individuals and institutions.The academic faculty of TIFR Hyderabad is envisaged to reach about 250
eventually. In the initial stages the campus will see the initiation
of activities largely in the theme areas concerned with Light, Matter
and Life. Small groups in chemistry, biology, lasers and optics,
magnetic resonance, condensed matter and soft matter are ready to
initiate this stage which is planned around a total strength of about
15-20 faculty members including both current TIFR staff moving to
Hyderabad and new recruits in this period.This nucleus will be well supported from existing TIFR campuses, but
will, from the outset, evolve structures and strategies suited to the
new campus, keeping in mind the overall vision outlined above. In
terms of infrastructure, a well-equipped single inter-disciplinary
laboratory building is planned, tentatively to be called the “TIFR
Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences”, which will help get the
scientific programmes off to a good start. All scientists and
students, from all disciplines, will share this building and
facilities. Teaching and the training of research students will form a
core activity right from the start.Subsequently the intention is to consolidate and grow the above themes
with the establishment of vigorous groups with a thrust within and
across fields, and to expand the graduate student teaching and
research programmes strongly. A few new emerging areas may also be
initiated as and when their appropriateness and importance comes to be
realised. Some new academic buildings (for instance, the new NMR
centre) would come up in a planned manner, along with housing for
faculty and staff, and hostels for students.From our experience with TIFR Mumbai, we expect that in TIFR Hyderabad
too there will eventually be a diversification of themes and an
approach to a steady state in which there is a broad coverage of
topics from all the sciences, mathematics and related areas. This
steady state will be a dynamic one, with the choice of topics dictated
by new frontiers emerging and older frontiers receding. Totally new
directions, which cannot be envisaged today, are bound to emerge and
will be initiated. The number of faculty is projected to grow to
around 250, with twice the number of postdoctoral fellows, five to six
times the number of students and an appropriate number of technical
support staff. 3. The Science
In his original proposal to the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, Homi Bhabha
described the proposed institute as '...but an embryo..' from which he
hoped to build… 'a school of physics comparable to the best anywhere'.
The progress of the last sixty years detailed in the appendix shows
how TIFR has successfully carried forward this vision. To continue
this process more than half a century later, one has to account for
and build on the radical changes that the scientific enterprise has
undergone. Today, more than ever, the focus is on attracting and
redeploying talent and resources in diverse fields to address rapidly
emerging and evolving interdisciplinary problems, often arising from
real life applications. TIFR is fully aware of the need to adapt to
this scenario while continuing to capitalize on its traditional
strengths namely the ability to choose and tackle questions that cut
across wide areas of science, with an array of methodologies and cross
fertilization. When TIFR Hyderabad reaches a steady state we expect that research
programmes would involve frontier areas which cut across all the major
disciplines of science, mathematics and related areas. But on a
shorter timescale it would be beneficial to have a larger emphasis on
a smaller set of areas, in order to have a degree of coherence, and to
make a significant impact. The listing arrived at is not closed; other
topics whose appropriateness and importance is recognized later will
be taken up as the campus grows. The first stage of TIFR Hyderabad will begin with the establishment of
the TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Science (TCIS). The Centre will
engage primarily in the research and teaching of interdisciplinary
sciences at the frontiers. There will also be a presence of the
well-established disciplines. In very broad terms the research
programmes to be taken up initially in the new campus will involve
Light, Matter and Life, referring to, respectively, Optical Science,
Condensed Matter, Materials and Chemistry, and Life Sciences, and
especially activities at the border of each pair. The TCIS will
reflect activity in each area, and will interconnect and unify the
programmes in all three fields. These points are detailed below. • Light: Optical Science
High power lasers generate ultra-intense fields, whose interaction
with matter results in new regimes of behavior. TIFR is a key player
in this area, with notable results on the generation of giant,
ultrashort magnetic pulses and high brightness X-ray sources. Besides
its intrinsic interest, this kind of high energy-density physics has
an impact on laser fusion, laboratory astrophysics and novel particle
acceleration schemes. It is planned to launch the next phase of high
light-intensity laser physics derived from petawatt, femtosecond laser
pulses in the new campus. This would mark TIFR’s entry into the field
of ‘extreme light’, which involves highly nonperturbative physics at
high intensity and on sub-picosecond timescales. From a broader perspective, all aspects of classical and quantum
optics are undergoing rapid progress worldwide. The study of light, as
also interactions between light and matter in all states – atomic,
molecular, condensed, has seen explosive growth, and the twenty first
century could well belong as much to the photon as the twentieth did
to the electron. Some of the key areas that TIFR can initiate using
optical techniques are related to quantum information processing,
communication, and cryptography, areas which are not just
fundamentally exciting but rich in potential applications.
Establishing a strong group in selected aspects of these areas will be
very fruitful scientifically, and would pay rich dividends in
applications, in a manner similar to TIFR's earlier ventures into
computing, microwave electronics, etc.• Matter: Condensed Matter, Materials and Chemistry
“Soft matter” encompasses a wide range of systems and phenomena, and
the challenge is to unravel the collective nonlinearities which give
rise to complex, interesting, and often completely new, behavior. In
recent years, the subject has seen the coming together of several
traditional disciplines in science and engineering, namely, chemistry,
chemical engineering, physics, mechanical engineering, biology and
biotechnology in forging an exciting area of work. Current efforts at
TIFR involve studying complex phenomena in a range of systems −
colloidal systems, porous media and surfactant systems. The
experimental probes used include micro-rheology as well as several
light-based techniques such as optical tweezers, various forms of
video-microscopy, and dynamic light scattering. It is planned to grow
this area strongly in the new campus, including areas such as granular
media and fluids in constrained and random media, the aim being to
uncover basic physics related to hydrodynamics, both linear and
nonlinear, and statistical mechanics, both in and away from
equilibrium. Often, the science behind familiar phenomena such as
adhesion or lubrication is quite intricate, and unraveling this has
large potential for applications relevant for industry. This will be
explored and exploited.Traditional ‘hard’ (i.e. solid state) condensed matter physics
continues to provide new surprises, as a result of quite subtle
correlations between electrons. Experimental and theoretical studies
of these systems at TIFR have shed light on these correlations, and
are expected to play an important role in the new campus. An example
is state-of-the-art precision electron spectroscopy, which provides a
powerful tool to probe electronic correlations. Another set of
frontiers is envisaged under the general title ‘Matter under extreme
conditions’, which refers to extremes of pressure, temperature, and
magnetic field. Ordinary matter behaves quite extraordinarily under
such extreme conditions and TIFR intends to initiate some of these
studies in the new campus.Many of the advances in condensed matter physics, soft and hard, have
come from the ability to synthesize novel materials, an example being
the borocarbide superconductors. This tradition will be strengthened
in the new campus. Further, TIFR has a chemical sciences group which
grew from the early chemical physics tradition. We now propose, by
contrast, to establish a synthetic and materials chemistry programme
which will be a logical follow up of the strong chemical sciences
activity, but also interface with the active programmes in other areas
such as condensed matter. Activities, ongoing and envisaged, range
from the synthesis of novel inorganic nanomaterials in the form of
thin films, hollow fibers and spheres, to designing new materials for
solar cells or photocatalytic processes, incorporating self-repair
within a designed photocatalyst.• The Life Sciences
With the advent of quantitative tools in biological measurements and
modeling, the nature of the questions that can be asked and answered
has changed; the need for interdisciplinary approaches is nowhere felt
more strongly than in the life sciences. Work performed at TIFR in the
areas of cellular and developmental biology as well as molecular
analyses leading to biological function uses cross disciplinary
techniques and approaches and has made a mark. The introduction of
probes derived from chemistry and physics (many of them based on
light, such as optical tweezers for determining the mechanical
properties of biomolecules, or fluorescence spectroscopy to probe the
dynamics of protein folding) has allowed a quantitative
characterization of the properties of biological molecules. Further,
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies of biological molecules,
begun early at TIFR, have recently been used for the determination of
the structure of extremely large molecular selfassemblies. On another
front, the powerful idea that networks of different sorts (for
example, involving protein interactions or traffic or signaling and
regulation) form frameworks that underlie biological complexity
provides a new paradigm in biological modeling.This sort of interdisciplinary approach will continue to be used in
the new programmes to be taken up at TIFR, Hyderabad. These include
human biology, genomics, systems biology and cellular biology (e.g.
cell division). These topics have natural connections with theoretical
studies of population dynamics, networks and pattern formation. From
the soft matter point of view, biological matter is interesting as it
is ‘active’, and the corresponding studies give quantitative
information, useful for biology. The connections of biology with
information processing, mathematics and engineering (e.g.
biomechanics) will also be developed. Applications to medicine will
include the design of novel chemical probes and sensors for imaging
disease markers. In terms of techniques, programmes in the new campus
will benefit from advanced software methodologies and from recent
breakthroughs in analytical imaging. The plan to move and expand the
NMR facility in Hyderabad will surely strongly benefit the effort in
the life sciences. Finally, in addition to the use of light as a probe
of biological systems, ‘life-light’ interactions hold exciting
prospects which will be explored in the new campus. • Theoretical Sciences
Traditionally, TIFR has had very strong groups in theoretical areas –
mathematics, computer and systems sciences and theoretical physics.
This tradition will be continued in the new campus, and wherever
possible interactions with experiments will be planned for and
encouraged. In the broad fields of statistical physics and quantum
physics, there is excellent potential for theory-experiment cross
fertilization in the Life-Matter-Light programme discussed above. New
theoretical areas planned to be initiated in the new campus include
large data sets, probability theory, dynamical systems, and the
mechanics and dynamics of simple and complex fluids. It is planned to
build high performance computing facilities for existing and new
areas, including computational materials science and fluid dynamics.Though TIFR’s strength is fundamental research, most of the areas
discussed above have also become important worldwide because of their
connection with applications, some of which are major concerns of our
times – health, energy and communication. In that sense, the work at
TIFR is expected to have a clear impact on the national scenario, even
as the work in the early days of TIFR did in the area of nuclear
energy. Therefore, policies and structures will be evolved to allow
this kind of cross fertilisation with applied science, engineering and
medicine.4. Education
As an integral part of launching these new programmes, TIFR is
committed to continue to provide opportunities at the highest level to
young scientists in the country, through graduate course work and
doctoral research projects, and postdoctoral experience. We envisage a
strong increase in the number of faculty members, students and
postdoctoral fellows in the areas above. Further, TIFR will strongly
encourage collaborative research with scientists from universities and
other research establishments in the country with common interests and
programmes. Scientific meetings and workshops at the cutting edge of
various fields and across fields, bringing together the best
researchers from within the country and across the world have always
been an important part of TIFR's functioning. Facilities will be built
to strengthen research and collaboration in all the new areas.For identifying and nurturing talent at the high school and college
level, the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education already has
strong, nationally known programmes. A science education programme in
the new campus would add a new dimension to this effort, as science
teachers and students who participate in programmes at TIFR, Hyderabad
would be able to take advantage of the facilities and ambience of the
new campus, and the proximity of vibrant research programmes would
provide a further impetus to participants, some of whom would
eventually become researchers. Thus the unification of teaching and
research would be symbiotic in achieving the goal of each. The
programmes in the new campus would be aimed at identifying, promoting,
and nurturing scientific talent and motivation among young students,
and generating materials, strategies, and programmes for the science
teaching community. One of the targets would be to create a science
and mathematics curriculum suitable for today’s frontiers of science
and technology, an effort in which the involvement of the larger
community of scientists on campus would help greatly. 5. Faculty, Students and Staff
The key factor which will determine the success of the enterprise is
the quality of the faculty. A very high threshold will be maintained
at all times. For some of the interdisciplinary ventures, an effort
will be made to draw in faculty not only from the traditional basic
sciences, but also from the engineering sciences. The right mix of
outstanding researchers from diverse background is likely to yield
rich dividends. As mentioned above, the long term aim is to reach final permanent
faculty strength of around 250 along with approximately five times
that number of students, and twice that number of postdoctoral
researchers. Technical staff members commensurate with the proposed
scientific activities and an efficient administration are also needed.
There would also be a large visiting population of scientists and
students at all times. The research and training programmes are then
expected to lead to 200 high quality Ph.Ds every year. While the
initial efforts towards starting the academic programmes would be
seeded by some of the very active current faculty of the Institute, we
intend to attract and induct new faculty members of a high calibre to
form the bulk of the academic staff at the new campus. The academic structure of the new campus will evolve in time to meet
its growing needs. However, some desirable features can be stated at
the outset. Being part of the TIFR system will facilitate close
academic links and free movement of students when there are programmes
which would benefit from such interaction. Programmes can involve
multiple centres, sharing resources and expertise, and facilitating
the coming together of researchers on joint projects. There should be
no administrative impediments to free exchange of ideas and
collaborations across disciplines. A dynamic grouping of scientists
will be encouraged, and the formation of rigid boundaries that
separate them will be avoided.A thriving graduate school and the emphasis on a large population of
postdoctoral fellows and visitors, with a wide variety of disciplines
on one campus, all add up to a unique opportunity to create a broad
centre of learning which will attract some of the best young people
from all over the world, as well as scholars in a wide range of
disciplines. Every effort will be made to create an academic
atmosphere, physical environment, and support facilities commensurate
with this ambition.6. The Location
After an extensive search, a suitable site for the new TIFR campus was
identified adjacent to the campus of the Central University of
Hyderabad. This consists of three contiguous plots with a total area
of about 209 acres on the periphery of the campus of the University of
Hyderabad. The State Government of Andhra Pradesh has allotted this
land in favour of TIFR.TIFR has a long standing connection with Hyderabad. TIFR’s Balloon
Facility in Hyderabad was established in 1971, but this activity was
carried out even earlier from Osmania University. Today Hyderabad is
one of the fastest growing metros, with rapid improvements in power,
water supply, roads and other infrastructure. The new international
airport has increased connectivity to the rest of the country and the
world, making Hyderabad an attractive location. Further, it is fast
becoming a knowledge hub, driven by the Information Technology
Industry and a large number of academic institutions and academically
oriented hospitals etc. As part of this trend, recently many
institutions such as IIT and BITS have started new campuses in
Hyderabad. Another advantage of the Hyderabad location is that the new
Vishakhapatnam campus of the DAE would be relatively close by.Establishing a new campus of TIFR in Hyderabad is expected to bring in
a large number of benefits. The location would facilitate
collaborative research with the faculty of other research and
educational institutions in the region, which would also have access
to the facilities in the campus by means of joint programmes. New
initiatives and programmes both in research and education are expected
to arise, complementing and enhancing strengths of the two sides.
Research scholars and faculty from universities and research
institutions in the region would be able to participate in various
TIFR-organized courses and national and international seminars,
symposia and workshops on contemporary areas of science. Lectures
given by distinguished scientists passing through the new campus of
TIFR will be of interest and benefit to faculty and students of
academic institutions in the vicinity. One of the great attractions of the proposed location is the close
proximity to the Central University of Hyderabad, which has very good
schools of Chemistry, Physics, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Computer
and Information Science, and a new school of Engineering Science and
Technology. There is clearly great scope for synergy between the new
campus and the University. In particular, the initial thrust on the
Life-Matter-Light theme should find a resonance with research
programmes at the University as well as other academic institutions in
Hyderabad.To sum up, TIFR’s proposed new campus in Hyderabad will provide
opportunities for researchers of the highest calibre to work together
on important problems, drawing strength from as well as adding
strength to science in the country and the world. The academic
atmosphere and facilities, as well as the insistence on high
standards, will attract the best talent as faculty. In turn, they
would attract, nurture, and train a future generation of young
scientists in exciting areas of fundamental research, with possible
applications in areas of contemporary relevance. In this way, the new
campus would contribute to science on the local, national and
international scale. 7. Conclusion
TIFR had the strongest support of the late Prime Minister Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru at every stage of its growth. In 1954, Pandit Nehru
laid the foundation stone for TIFR's Mumbai campus. It was Pandit
Nehru again who inaugurated the new buildings of the campus on 15
January 1962, when he remarked, memorably: "It is in meeting (these
scientists) and finding out what they have been doing, that I have
felt so hopeful, so optimistic about the future of science in India."
The establishment of TIFR Hyderabad is also profoundly in consonance
with Homi Bhabha's and Pandit Nehru's objectives. For TIFR, it is thus
especially appropriate that the foundation stone of this campus should
be laid in the Bhabha Centenary year.
http://newsunlimited.in/
No comments:
Post a Comment