Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research - JNCASR

About Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research - JNCASR

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) is a Deemed University and Multidisciplinary Research Institute. The Centre was established in 1989 by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, to mark the birth centenary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Since 2002, JNCASR Centre is recognized as a Deemed to be University by the University Grants Commission and students’ degrees are awarded directly by JNCASR. The Centre is funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research has been established to pursue and promote world-class scientific research and training at the frontiers of science and engineering.

JNCASR Location - Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research is situated in Jakkur, a locality north of Bangalore, India.

Transportation

By Air - Bangalore is well-connected to most cities in India. The Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) airport is located near Jakkur at Devanahalli (JNCASR, Jakkur to BIAL airport distance is about 25 km).

By Taxi - MERU & EASYCAB to provide basic taxi services. The taxi operators will have basic AC cars, all equipped with tracking devices to ensure safety and transparency. Both operators have professional call centres.

By Train - In Bangalore city, there are two major railway stations - Bangalore City Railway Station and the Bangalore Cantonment Railway Station. Bangalore city railway station is the main railway station and it is connected to all the metro cities like New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

There are also other railway stations spread out across the city.

These are:

• Bangalore East
• Malleshwaram
• Yeshwanthpur
• Krishnarajapuram / Whitefield
• Yelahanka

By Bus - To reach the Centre, you can take the JNC bus from IISc (also known as 'Tata Institute') campus.

By your own Vehicle - If you are driving your own vehicle, you have to reach the Mekhri Circle, a well known landmark (it is no longer a circle, but has a grade separator!). At this junction, get onto the NH7 (Bangalore - Bellary / Hyderabad highway) towards Yelahanka, if you are not on it already. About 6 km from Mekhri Circle, you will see a shopping complex named ‘Big Market’ on your left, which means you are about 200 meters from Byatarayanapura. Take a right turn at the 'T' junction at Byatarayanapura just after the 553 mile stone. This junction also has a route post (off-white colour) of JNC. From here onwards follow the JNC route posts posted at every major junction. JNC is about 2 kms. from this Byatarayanapura junction.

Facilities

Hostel – The hostel is literally a stone’s throw away from the main gate. It offers single room accommodations and some apartments for married candidates. Hostel facilities include twin-sharing bathrooms, washing machines, wi-fi, gym, guest rooms and large LCD TVs.

Research - Research at the Centre is divided into various units:  

JNCASR Research Units

• Chemistry and Physics of Materials
• Engineering Mechanics
• Evolutionary & Organismal Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• New Chemistry
• Theoretical Science
• International Centre for Materials Science\
• Education Technology
• Geodynamics
• CNR Hall of Science
• Chemical Biology
• Condensed Matter Theory
• CSIR Centre of Excellence in Chemistry
• DST Unit on Nanoscience
• Centre for Computational Material Science
• Neuroscience

The centre, also has two off-campus units at the Indian Institute of Science: the Chemical Biology and Condensed Matter Theory Units.

Veeco Laboratory - Veeco Instruments Inc (Nasdaq VECO), a leading supplier of instrumentation to the nanoscience community has established Veeco India Nanotechnology Laboratory. This Laboratory is jointly operated with the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) located at Jakkur Campus, Bangalore. The Laboratory houses Optical Profilometer and Scanning Probe Microscopy tools for nanoscience research, some of which are NanoManTM, Innova  and NT1100.

Fellowships - The Centre has several Science Outreach and Fellowship Programmes. One such activity is the Summer Research Fellowship Programme for young students. Around 1700 students have benefitted from this programme since it’s inception in 1990. Every year around 5000-6000 applications are received, out of which 120-133 fellowships are offered. This is one of the highly acclaimed programmes of the Centre which enables the students to get inspired towards scientific research during early stage of their education. With the aim to make this programme globally visible by making it accessible to student in the developing countries of South Asia and Africa, the Third World Academy of Sciences-Regional Office for Central and South Asia and JNCASR have come together to expose these young undergraduates to the research culture in advanced areas of science and engineering by working with peers in many institutions within the country.

Other initiatives in promoting scientific research from undergraduate level are:

• POCE – It stands for Project Oriented Chemical Education

• POBE – It stands for Project Oriented Biological Education Programme

Ten meritorious students are selected from across the country for each of these programmes. As part of this, students undertake work with faculty members of the Centre on small projects during their mid-semester breaks. They also attend special lectures and seminars at the Centre. On completion of their training which lasts for 3 summers, they are issued a Diploma certificate in Chemistry or Biology as the case may be.

Apart from these programmes, the Centre also offers Visiting Scientist Fellowships to research scientists in educational institutions and R and D laboratories, to work with the faculty and honorary faculty of the Centre. This program helps young researchers to hone their skills or develop research laboratory in their parent establishment after undergoing a training and research in the Centre.

Workshops - The Centre also organizes workshops for teachers and students of schools for popularizing science. The Centre, through Educational Technology Unit, is actively involved in the concept, production and development of multimedia CD-ROMs especially for school students and teachers in various disciplines of science. The content of these is also developed in vernacular languages to science popularization programs in various parts of the country.

CompLab - CompLab is responsible for the establishment and maintenance of computer and network facilities and management of storage and flow of information on them at JNCASR. It provides infrastructure support for both windows and Linux based machines used by users from diverse backgrounds (Biology, Chemistry and Engineering Physics). The centre is connected to the internet via 100Mbps + 20Mbps leased lines from BSNL & HCL Infotech, respectively.

Awards - At JNCASR, meritorious students, who have excelled in the field of academics or research are felicitated by different awards. Some of these awards are - Medal for best thesis, Babu Mathru Prasad Scholarships and Bapu Narayanaswamy Prize.

Guest House - The Jawahar Visitors' house (JVH) is located in the Gymkhana grounds of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) or Tata Institute (informal name).

Achievements

• In the last few years, the Centre's faculty members have published their research in some of the most prestigious scientific journals, including Nature, Nature Medicine, Science, Evolution, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and Physical Review Letters.