 | |
| Type | PublicDeemed university |
|---|---|
| Established | 1 June 1945; 80 years ago (1 June 1945) |
| Director | Jayaram N. Chengalur |
Academic staff | 268[1] |
| Students | 696[1] |
| Postgraduates | 45[1] |
| 651[1] | |
| Location | ,, |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | www |
 | |
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is aresearch Institute under theDepartment of Atomic Energy of theGovernment of India. It is apublicdeemed university located atNavy Nagar,Colaba inMumbai. It also has centres inBangalore,Pune andHyderabad. TIFR conducts research primarily in the natural sciences, the biological sciences and theoretical computer science.[2]
Homi J. Bhabha, known for his role in the development of the Indian atomic energy programme, wrote to theSir Dorabji Tata Trust requesting financial assistance to set up a scientific research institute.[3] With support fromJ.R.D. Tata, then chairman of theTata Group, TIFR was founded on 1 June 1945, and Homi Bhabha was appointed its first director.[4] The institute initially operated within the campus of theIndian Institute of Science,Bangalore before relocating to Mumbai later that year. TIFR's new campus inColaba was designed byChicago-based architect Helmuth Bartsch and was inaugurated by Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru on 15 January 1962.[5]
Shortly afterIndian Independence, in 1949, theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) designated TIFR to be the centre for all large-scale projects innuclear research.[6][7] The firsttheoretical physics group was set up by Bhabha's studentsB.M. Udgaonkar andK.S. Singhvi.[8] In December 1950, Bhabha organised an international conference at TIFR onelementary particle physics. Several world-renowned scientists attended the conference, includingRudolf Peierls,Léon Rosenfeld,William Fowler as well asMeghnad Saha,Vikram Sarabhai and others providing expertise from India.[8] In the 1950s, TIFR gained prominence in the field ofcosmic ray physics, with the setting up of research facilities inOoty and in theKolar gold mines.[9]
In 1957, India's first digital computer,TIFRAC was built in TIFR.[3] Acting on the suggestions of British physiologistArchibald Hill, Bhabha invitedObaid Siddiqi to set up a research group in molecular biology. This ultimately resulted in the establishment of theNational Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore twenty years later. In 1970, TIFR started research in radio astronomy with the setting up of theOoty Radio Telescope. Encouraged by the success of ORT,Govind Swarup persuaded J. R. D. Tata to help set up theGiant Metrewave Radio Telescope nearPune,India.[8]
TIFR attained the officialdeemed university status in June 2002.[10] To meet the ever-growing demand of space needed for research labs and accommodation institute is coming up with anew campus atHyderabad.[11]
Research at TIFR is distributed across three schools, working over the mathematical sciences, natural sciences, technology and computer science.
Since its birth in the 1950s, several contributions to mathematics have come from TIFR School of Mathematics. Notable contributions from TIFR mathematicians includeRaghavan Narasimhan's proof of theembedding of openRiemann surfaces in,C. S. Seshadri's work onprojective modules overpolynomial rings andM. S. Narasimhan's results in the theory of pseudo differential operators.[8]
Narasimhan and Seshadri wrote a seminal paper on stablevector bundles, work which has been recognised as one of the most influential articles in the area.[8]M. S. Raghunathan started research at TIFR onalgebraic anddiscrete groups, and was recognised for his work onrigidity.
The School of Natural Sciences is further split into seven departments working in several areas ofphysics,chemistry andbiology.
Within physics, the Department ofTheoretical Physics (DTP) was set up by Bhabha, who conducted research inhigh energy physics andCondensed Matter Physics. The department worked on the major advances in this period such asQuantum Field Theory,string theory, andsuperconductivity.[2] The current faculty includesSandip Trivedi,Shiraz Minwalla,Abhijit Gadde, andGautam Mandal. Several early faculty members at the institution were renowned in their fields. These includeAshoke Sen, who conducted seminal work onString Theory, specificallyS-Duality, while at this institution. Other distinguished members wereSpenta Wadia,Sunil Mukhi,Deepak Dhar andNandini Trivedi.
The Department ofAstrophysics works in areas likestellar binaries,gravitational waves andcosmology. TIFR is involved in building India's first gravity wave detector.[12] TheHigh Energy Physics Department, TIFR has been involved in major accelerator projects like theKEK,Tevatron,LEP and theLHC. TIFR also runs the Pelletron particle accelerator facility.[13] Bhabha's motivation resulted in the development of anNMR spectrometer forsolid state studies. The Department ofCondensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences also conducts experimental research in high-temperature superconductivity, nanoelectronics and nanophotonics.
The School of Technology and Computer Science grew out of early activities carried out at TIFR for building digital computers. Today, its activities cover areas such as Algorithms, Complexity Theory, Formal Method, Applied Probability, Learning Theory, Mathematical Finance, Information Theory, Communications, etc.
The Department Of Biological Sciences was set up byObaid Siddiqi in early 1960s as amolecular biology group.[citation needed] Over the years has expanded to encompass various other branches of modern biology. The department has fourteen labs covering various aspects of modern molecular and cell biology.
TIFR also includes institutes outside its main campus inColaba andMumbai:
TheVisiting Students Research Programme (VSRP) is a summer programme conducted annually during the summer season by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. VSRP is offered in the subjects Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology and Computer Science.[27]
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18°54′27″N72°48′22″E / 18.90757°N 72.80601°E /18.90757; 72.80601 (TIFR)
