Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Infobox University
name = Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

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established = June 1 1945
type = Research Institution
director = Prof. Mustansir Barma
city = Mumbai
country = India
campus = Urban
students =
undergrad =
postgrad =
website = [http://www.tifr.res.in/scripts/homepage.php http://www.tifr.res.in]

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a premier institution in India for higher education and research. The main academic disciplines studied at the institute are natural sciences, mathematics and theoretical computer science. It is located at Navy Nagar Colaba, Mumbai. It is one of the outstanding research centres in India, and is regarded as being a leader in certain fields like Mathematics Fact|date=April 2007 and String Theory. [ [http://www.indianexpress.com/archive/StoryO-65362-Sultans-of-String.html Sultans of String] ] TIFR has a graduate program leading to a PhD in all the major fields of study. The graduate program is selective and the selection is based on a written exams followed by interviews.

It was established in 1945 under the direction of Homi J. Bhabha with the help of J.R.D. Tata. It is funded primarily by the Government of India. For most of its history, it had been affiliated to the University of Mumbai but like all other other premier research institutes in the country it has always enjoyed academic and administrative autonomy. It attained the official deemed university status in June 2002. [ [http://www.tifr.res.in/scripts/content_r.php?schoolid=&terminalnodeid=1050&deptid= TIFR ] ] There are at present about 400 scientists in the Institute working in various disciplines

Research scope

The academic disciplines are classified as:

* The School of Mathematics
* The School of Natural Sciences
* The School of Technology and Computer Science

The School of Natural Sciences is further divided in following departments

* Department of Biological Sciences
* Department of Chemical Sciences
* Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
* Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences
* Department of High Energy Physics
* Department of Nuclear and Atomic Physics
* Department of Theoretical Physics

Aside from the first couple of them, the rest all come under the umbrella of Physics. The Department of High Energy Physics, Department Of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences, and Department of Nuclear and Atomic Physics all carry out experimental/analysis work. The Department Of Theoretical Physics is involved with the theoretical research in Condensed Matter and High Energy Physics.

Scientists from the Tata Institute built some of the first underground neutrino detectors at the Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka, India. The Laser Plasma division in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research currently boasts the highest intensity laser in the country.

Research Focus

The Institute does work in fields like algebra, algebraic geometry, lie groups, representation theory and Classical and quantum computation/complexity, Logic, Probability,Stochastic process, Information Theory, Wireless Communication and quantum groups, number theory, combinatorics, differential geometry, topology, mathematical physics, Condensed Matter Physics, astronomy and astrophysics, structural biology, molecular biophysics, molecular biology, nuclear & atomic physics, high energy physics and theoretical physics, among others.

Research Facilities

The Institute has several field stations and research facilities in different parts of the country. A Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope, the largest of its kind in the world, is operational at Khodad near Narayangaon, north of Pune and a large equatorially mounted cylindrical radio telescope and a high energy cosmic ray laboratory are operational at Udhagamandalam in Tamil Nadu. High Energy Cosmic ray and Gamma Ray laboratories are operated from Pachamarhi in Madhya Pradesh. TIFR runs a National Balloon Facility in Hyderabad which is among the best in the world and has the geographical advantage of being close to the geomagnetic equator. At Gauribidanur, TIFR scientists have built an extremely sensitive balance to study the difference between gravitational and inertial mass. A Heavy Ion Low Energy Accelerator capable of accelerating particles to moderate energies for studying heavy ion atomic interactions and a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility to study complex molecules are also housed in TIFR. The Institute's Dental Section has been actively involved in investigations pertaining to carcinogenic effects of tobacco.

In addition to the research laboratories, the facilities of TIFR include:

* A large library in India with more than one hundred thousand books and journals in its collection. The library is fully computerized and provides microfilm, microfiche, audio - video and compact disk reading facilities.
* A powerful central computing facility together with individually assigned personal computers and workstations for computation, control and monitoring of experiments and data analysis.
* A network connected to the world grid through high speed communication networks.
* A liquid helium facility for very low temperature experimental studies.
* A large workshop and glass blowing section for manufacturing high precision instruments. Pioneering work done in the Institute in several areas has resulted in the establishment of new National organizations such as the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) and the National Centre for Software Technology (NCST). In addition, several projects for which technology was developed at the Institute, were transferred to the industry and other departments of the Government of India.

Fellows

As of March 2007, the following researchers are honorary fellows:

*Michael Atiyah
*K. Chandrasekharan
*R.H. Dalitz
*P.R. Deligne
*Richard R. Ernst
*Murray Gell-Mann
*V.L. Ginzburg
*Antony Hewish
*Har Gobind Khorana
*D. Lal
*Leon M. Lederman
*G.A. Margulis
*Andre Martin
*M.G.K. Menon
*S. Miyake
*D. Mumford
*M.S. Narasimhan
*Lord Porter
*C.N.R. Rao
*T.V. Ramakrishnan
*A. Selberg
*Shri H.N. Sethna
*B.V. Sreekantan
*Samuel C.C. Ting
*James Dewey Watson
*Arnold Wolfendale

Affiliated Research institutes

TIFR also includes institutes outside its main campus in Colaba and Mumbai:

* Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education at Deonar, Mumbai
* National Centre for Radio Astrophysics at Pune
* National Centre for Biological Sciences at Bangalore
* TIFR Centre, Bangalore for Mathematics

References

See also

* TIFRAC, the first computer built indigenously in India

External links

* [http://www.tifr.res.in/ TIFR website]