ICT-DAE Centre for Chemical Engineering Education and Research

The Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) instituted the ICT-DAE Centre for an interdisciplinary Ph.D. programme in Chemical Engineering to undertake R&D projects in the areas of common interest and related to nuclear, fuel cycle and advanced technologies. Under the Centre, the faculty members of the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, collaborate with the DAE Research Institutions, namely, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Indira Gandhi Centre of Atomic Research (IGCAR) which are premier multidisciplinary R&D organizations engaged in research with the objective of generating knowledge and techniques for nuclear power production, advancement of science, use of radioisotopes in industry, health and agriculture as well as research in frontier areas of science and technology. BARC and IGCAR have pursued research and development in chemical engineering in a rigorous way for many years in the areas defined by DAE’s mission oriented programmes as well as projects of national interest.

DAE has to develop several innovative technologies to tackle the problems of efficient nuclear fuel utilisation in the second and third stages of nuclear power programme. This requires a pool of qualified, motivated and talented young research scientists with multidisciplinary expertise. The number of Ph.D. level chemical engineers is small in this country and the number of chemical engineers entering DAE is even less. To satisfy the need of greater number of Ph.D. scholars well versed in basic sciences and chemical engineering, DAE and ICT have taken this initiative for imparting doctoral education in chemical engineering with multidisciplinary character through the ICT- DAE Centre.

ICT-DAE Centre supports a interdisciplinary PhD programme with candidates students drawn from Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical and Mechanical Engineering disciplines at the Bachelors and Masters Levels, and also from Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Mathematics streams with Masters degree. The Masters Degree holders in Engineering spend a minimum duration of 3 years, the Bachelors degree holder in Engineering 4 years and M.Sc. degree holder in science stream 5 years for earning the Ph.D. degree. The students are selected on the basis of all India written test and interview conducted jointly by ICT and DAE. The Ph.D. scholars take up research projects primarily defined by BARC and IGCAR. However, there will be a certain degree of flexibility for selecting research projects outside the areas of relevance to DAE.