IIT Roorkee students to participate in joint PhDs

New Delhi: Students from the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) and the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IITR) will soon be able to enroll in a joint PhD programme, and IIT Roorkee students will be able to work on projects related to ARIES' ongoing activities, utilising the institute's various existing and upcoming facilities.

According to a release from the Ministry of Science & Technology, this will be possible thanks to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between ARIES, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, and Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT-R) for academic cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

On the basis of reciprocity, best effort, mutual benefit, and regular exchanges, this MoU will foster collaboration and facilitate knowledge progress. ARIES and IIT Roorkee have also agreed to collaborate on research, development, and consulting projects, as well as teacher, scientist, and student exchanges, scientific and technical exchanges, and collaborative conferences, workshops, and even short-term courses.

Director, ARIES, Professor Dipankar Banerjee asserted, "The aim of this partnership is to bring the researchers of IIT Roorkee and ARIES closer to each other so as to use their respective strengths to jointly address interesting scientific and engineering problems," said Director, IIT Roorkee, Professor Ajit K. Chaturvedi.

ARIES and IIT Roorkee are known for their strength in research and education in one or more disciplines of science, engineering, management, and social sciences, and their mutual interest in engaging themselves in academic cooperation.

ARIES is one of the leading research institutes, which specializes in observational Astronomy & Astrophysics, Solar Physics and Atmospheric Sciences. The main research interests of Astronomy & Astrophysics division are in solar, planetary, stellar, galactic and extra-galactic astronomy including stellar variabilities, X-ray binaries, star clusters, nearby galaxies, quasars, and inherently transient events like supernovae and highly energetic gamma ray bursts.

ARIES hosts three existing optical telescopes 3.6 m DOT (India's largest), 1.3 m DFOT and 1.04 m ST and the upcoming 4 m ILMT along with a 206.5 MHz ST Radar.