MoU to enable ARIES, IIT Roorkee students to participate in joint PhDs

New Delhi : Students of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) and Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IITR) will soon be able to participate in a joint PhD programme even as IIT Roorkee students can do projects on the ongoing activities at ARIES utilizing the various existing and upcoming facilities there.

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

This MoU will foster collaboration, and facilitate advancement of knowledge on the basis of reciprocity, best effort, mutual benefit, and frequent interactions. Furthermore, ARIES and IIT Roorkee have agreed to jointly sponsor research, development and consultancy; exchange of faculty, scientists and students; exchange of scientific and technical matters; hold joint 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.

–IANS