TIFR: Expanding boundaries of science research

FAST FACTS
Name: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)
Location: Mumbai
Faculty strength: 250
Faculty to student ratio: 1:2
Popular study domains: Physics and Computer Science
Socially relevant projects: Open day, Chai & Why series, Inspire camps

'Wow' is the word for TIFR campus. Situated at the banks of the Arabian Sea, this National Centre of the Government of India welcomes you in a calm green environment away from the hustle bustle of Mumbai city. Well guarded, the institution boasts of a strong security procedure. Those who wish to enter have to register themselves at the main entrance, get an entry pass and go through the troop of guards.

Indoors are filled with murals, paintings, statues; and a replica of the university at the centre. Walking past corridors of TIFR, I caught up with Prof Deepak Dhar, the Dean of Graduate Studies, who was barely visible amidst piles of textbooks and papers. His room smells of the old world charm of earthy furniture and books. All personified by simplicity, this dean feels proud that India stands second for producing scientifically trained manpower. But he is restless, and unsatisfactorily says, "We have do much better in science and technology." Read excerpts from the interview...       

 
Q: What change does TIFR seek to bring about through its education in India?
A: We have lot of proficient population who know fair amount of technology. It is much harder to live without mobile phones today. So some level of technology is required for minimal functioning and higher level of it is required for doing well. We have to do better and train more people in technology and higher science. So while we have been quite proud of claiming that we are the second largest scientifically trained manpower, unfortunately the level of training imparted in science has not been so great. This is what my personal feeling is. It is a question of how we could have done much better, we can do much better.

Prof Deepak Dhar Dean (Graduate Studies) TIFR

Q: What's your ambition for TIFR? How would the institution want to be acknowledged?
A: Our aim is twofold: One is to do research ourselves to make name for our country in the world of science. Second, to train people for taking on this work later - train younger people leading to multiplicative effect. A fair number of people finish PhD with us and find jobs as professors in IITs, IISERs and universities.

Q: Does Phd alone have scope of study at TIFR?
A: There is another segment, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education where we are actually addressing this lower age group, trying to do a little bit better at higher secondary level science teaching. We develop new textbooks and find better ways to teach science.

Q: What is unique about TIFR?
A: One of the unique features is that we are able to do work in areas which you will not be able to do in many universities, like high energy physics experiment. These experiments require very high expenditure. Our institute people are part of large international collaborations where they can go to CERN and Fermilabs and do experiments there which is not available in most universities in India except one or two. We also have the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope near Pune which is, again, a world class instrument in astronomy. That kind of instrument is not available in most places.

Q: TIFR is a premier research institute but not many students get a chance to study here because of tough admission procedure. Your comments.  
A: We have to make our students world class scientists. That requires a lot of work on the part of faculty. They need to interact with students on a continual basis for five-six years so that our PhD students do well later in life. Some of them become very good scientists, mathematicians or the likes; others at least are better trained to become very good professors. If they are not great scientists, they are good scientists.  

TIFR has a Linear particle accelerator and a Pelletron for studying heavy ion atomic interactions and a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility housed in campus

Q: So what does it take to get admission in TIFR?
A: We select students on the basis of some written test and interview. There is a basic minimum of performance in the previous exams like BSc. After that we would like to look for originality and proper thinking as opposed to rote learning. On the basis of interviews we try to see if the students can think of their own. We encourage people to be original and some skills in basic proficiencies, in verbal communication and mathematical analytical are of course required.

Q: Why an exclusive cell for Graduate Studies?
A: The top most level of university student matters is called graduate studies. If there are overall problem of student welfare for example or accommodation or something which are not subject specific they are taken care of by the university’s graduate studies cell.

Q: You have an integrated MSc-PhD programme. Has it ever happened that after MSc you did not find a student fit for PhD?
A: It is a matter of judgement! Students have some level of competence and it is our job to get them at higher level of competence. This six-year course saves a bit of time as quite often we find that MSc students from somewhere else have to repeat same level course because they have not been trained well enough. When the student leaves from here, he should leave only after he has cleared our threshold for qualification for that degree. We are quite selective and we take about 100 students per year in the whole programme. Our selection procedure is fair and good.

Q: What do you say about the dearth of faculty in higher education institutions?
A: We are doing our best but we cannot address the big problem. Improvement has to come at all levels. A person enters a university, after three years he gets a BSc degree, how much does he learn in three years? Having talked to lot of students tells me that it’s not so great. Of course university provides lots of extra curricular, socializing and other kinds of help, but as far as their mental growth is considered, that is more important and to what degree the university has helped them to attain that. We can only say that we will provide some better quality of larger number of people.

Q: What do you think about the regulatory regime in India?
A:  Government’s attempt to regulate the universities to the degree that you don’t have just paper-giving-institutions is required somewhere. On the other side, there should not be too much regulation because the university should have some degree of autonomy to be able to run their courses. One has to strike a balance between over regulation and no regulation.
 

Dr Arnab Bhattacharya, caretaker of Chai & Why? series, enjoys doing experiments, along with children, during the sessions.  Chai & Why? at TIFR HOW does a body cell know that it has to become a skin cell or a heart cell? This was a query that made scientists at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai know about a valuable finding about selective unlocking of cells segments. And it was posed at ‘Chai and Why?’ - an informal forum for science geeks organised by TIFR along with Prithvi Theatre twice a month. It tries to engage people interested in science and keen to discuss their views.   Anyone can pose any question around interesting scientific issues that may be topical, or from their daily life reflections such as global warming, space exploration, stem cells etc. The idea is to respect the notion that some queries are invariably not stupid, but are often insightful. The 100th session is due on May 5. There is no entry fee. So just turn up and you will get a cup of tea, that too for free!

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