Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar

Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) is an autonomous institute under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India. It is exclusively devoted to basic research in plasma sciences and the development of technological applications. The major thrust is in magnetic confinement fusion and plasma-assisted material processing.

About IPR

The Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) was established in 1986 as an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) with a mandate to pursue research in plasma science and technology. The institute grew rapidly and came under the administrative umbrella of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1995. This institute is largely involved in theoretical and experimental studies in plasma science including basic plasma physics, magnetically confined hot plasmas and plasma technologies for industrial application.

The institute owns two operational tokamaks (a machine for controlling thermonuclear fusion) - ADITYA and Steady State Tokamak (SST)-1. FCIPT, ITER-India and CPP-IPR, located in Gandhinagar and Guwahati are three divisions under IPR.

Divisions

FCIPT, Gandhinagar

The Facilitation Centre for Industrial Plasma Technologies (FCIPT) links industries with IPR. The knowledge-base in plasma sciences and associated technologies is exploited to generate advanced and non-conventional plasma-based technologies for material processing and environmental remediation. FCIPT takes up the development of plasma processing technologies from concept to commercialization and promotes awareness of technology through technology transfer, newsletters and direct marketing.

ITER-India, Gandhinagar

ITER is an experimental fusion reactor facility under construction in Cadarache, South of France to prove the feasibility of nuclear fusion for a future source of energy. ITER partners are the European Union, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States of America. European Union being the host party contributes 45% while the rest of the parties contribute 9% each. Most of these contributions are through 'in-kind' procurement of ITER components. The ITER-India is a special project under the Institute for Plasma Research. It is governed by the Empowered Board, which is chaired by the Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). India became a full seventh partner of ITER in December 2005. ITER-India, Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), located in Gandhinagar, western India, is the Indian Domestic Agency to design, build and deliver the Indian in-kind contribution to ITER.

Centre of Plasma Physics, Guwahati

The Centre of Plasma Physics - Institute for Plasma Research (CPP-IPR), a research centre of IPR, is an autonomous institute under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The centre was initially formed with a small group of scientists in 1991 as a project of Government of Assam and functioned as an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, Government of Assam till 29^th May 2009. Hereon upon, the institute was taken as a centre of Institute for Plasma Research under DAE.

LIGO-India

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment aiming to detect gravitational waves directly. The LIGO-India is a collaborative project between LIGO USA and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) for establishing an Advanced LIGO detector in India similar to that of LIGO-US (Hanford & Livingston Observatories). India’s major institutes (IPR Gandhinagar, RRCAT Indore, DCSEM and IUCAA Pune) are participating in installation, commissioning and operation of the Gravitational Wave Detector.

Academics

Highly motivated candidates can pursue doctoral research in theory, experiment and computational plasma physics at IPR on a wide variety of fields such as Dusty plasma, Laser-Plasma interaction, Industrial Plasma, Fusion Plasma, Tokamaks and Radiofrequency Discharges and Applications etc. Candidates who have pursued M.Sc. Physics/Engineering Physics/Applied Physics with a minimum aggregate of 60% are eligible to apply. The candidates must have Physics and Mathematics courses at the undergraduate level. The candidates must have qualified at least one of the following national level examinations:

• Joint Entrance Screening Test (JEST) in Physics
• Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) in Physics
• CSIR–UGC-JRF-NET in Physical Sciences

Academic Projects

Students pursuing B.E./M.E./MCA/M.Sc./M.Phil. or any other undergraduate/postgraduate courses in science and engineering may apply for an academic project at IPR. The duration of the academic project shall be from 6 weeks to 6 months for undergraduate engineering students and also for undergraduate/postgraduate science students. For postgraduate engineering students, the duration of the academic project shall be from 6 months to 12 months. Projects are offered in the following disciplines:

• Physics
• Mechanical/Remote Handling/Mechatronics
• Computer Engineering/IT/MCA
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronics/Communication Engineering
• Instrumentation Engineering
• Metallurgy/Material Science and Engineering
• Other Disciplines (not covered above)

Outreach

IPR Outreach Division (ORD)

The IPR Outreach Division (ORD) was set up in December 2017 to carry out the various scientific and societal outreach programmes of the institute.

Scientific Outreach

IPR-NCSTC Training Programme in Plasma: A joint initiative of Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar and the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC), DST, New Delhi for S&T popularization centered around the applications of plasma science and technology and energy from nuclear fusion, the 2-day "Awareness- Cum-Training Programme on Plasma Science & Technology and Energy from Nuclear Fusion" for Physics teachers of High School and Junior Colleges.

National Science Day

Since 2013, Institute for Plasma Research has been celebrating the National Science Day as a 2-day event at the Bhat campus. During this event, various competitions such as poster and essay writing, eloquence, quiz, skit etc. are organized for school children. For teachers, a "teaching aid" competition is also organized. Open House visits to various laboratories of IPR are also organized for the benefit of visitors. During these two days, public entry into the IPR camps is allowed to Indian nationals.

Academic Visits to IPR

Any educational institution can plan an academic visit for their students/faculty to IPR.  All the visitors should be Indian nationals. Science students of Secondary/Higher Secondary/Junior College/Graduate/Postgraduate, as well as Engineering stream, can visit IPR. Educational visits to IPR are usually allowed once a week, on Wednesdays. Only one group will be allowed on a day. Prior permission from IPR has to be obtained by contacting the IPR Outreach Division.

Resource Materials

IPR has developed several resource materials for its scientific outreach programmes. Those who are interested in using these resources for introducing the topic of plasma to students may request IPR for copies of the resource materials (except models).

Books: A popular book entitled "Living with Plasmas" has been published which deals with the introduction to plasma, its industrial and societal applications as well as basics of energy from fusion using plasma. This book is available currently in English/Hindi and Gujarati languages.

Posters: Ten informative posters on Plasma Science & Technology and Fusion were created for the purpose of outreach programmes. These are available both in English as well as Hindi.

DVD: A DVD containing electronic versions of all the resource materials is available. IPR Outreach Division can be contacted for more details.

Science Activity Kit: A simple science activity kit containing around 25 simple activities to introduce the topics of electromagnetics, plasma and tokamak to students has been developed. These simple activities can be done by any high school student.

IPR Information Leaflet: Basic information on the Institute for Plasma Research is available in multiple languages.

Hands-On Models: IPR has developed several working and non-working models based on plasma and its applications and also auxiliary technologies developed for fusion applications for providing a more hands-on experience to the participants of our scientific outreach programmes. These models are usually exhibited during the scientific outreach programmes of IPR.

Useful Links

• Plasma Processing Updates
• Ask a Plasma Related Question
• Interact with a Plasma Scientist!

Source: Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar