Opportunities
How to join us?
If you are a graduate student at TIFR and interested in dark matter, neutrinos in astrophysics/cosmology, or some other aspect of astroparticle physics, feel free to drop by my office for a chat! I am not taking on any undergraduate/project students at this point.
If you would like to do a postdoc at TIFR and work with me, please consider applying for the Visiting Fellows program at DTP and email me to let me know. We are looking for bright motivated postdocs in the area of astroparticle physics and cosmology.
Some advice to prospective students
If you are considering working with me, you should try to do one of your graduate course projects with me. I am interested in neutrino astrophysics and cosmology, dark matter, and other areas of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. You may also want to have a look at my publication list and my CV. You may also want to talk to my students.
I have found some non-technical articles very helpful to gain a perspective about doing research. Perhaps you may find them useful too. If I have to recommend that you read only one of them, it would be
S. Weinberg's "Four Golden Lessons".
Additionally, I think it is very important to quickly identify one's "style". I strongly recommend
R. W. Hamming, on "You and Your Research"
F. Dyson, on "Birds and Frogs"
to understand what that means.
If you read Weinberg's advice above, you'll see that he recommends reading the history of science. We can gain some insight about the role of science and scientists (of all calibers) in modern civilization. Also, we can learn from the frustrations and successes of our predecessors. In this context, I only recently stumbled upon a wildly well-known piece of science writing:
James Watson's "The Double Helix"
For me, a very valuable aspect of Watson's book is how it reveals (even the elite) practitioners of science to be living, breathing, flesh-and-blood human beings with their individual strengths and weaknesses. Be warned, at times this book can be uncomfortable to read.
Finally, but very importantly, you may want to think/read about how to choose your mentors (not only for your Ph.D., but also afterwards). This is a rather important decision, not to be taken lightly. In most cases, this decision changes your life (in science, but usually also outside it). There is a lot of good information out there (google!), and here is an article I found to be frank and honest:
B. A. Barres, on "How to Pick a Graduate Advisor"
Although addressed to neuroscience graduate students the advice is remarkably portable (lab rotations → projects, NIH → national/international grant giving agency, etc.).
Best of luck!