Students Vision

Hyderabad : The state government may be compelled to approach the Supreme Court challenging the recent order of the AP High Court over the fee reimbursement issue.

The government has sought the opinion of its legal department and a final decision is expected to be taken on September 3.

The HC had last week issued orders that private college managements can collect fees from beneficiaries of the fee reimbursement scheme at the time of admission if the state government has not paid the amount to the colleges.

The order triggered protests with several Backward Class unions taking to the streets demanding that the government file a review petition either in the HC or approach the SC and try to vacate the HC order. Most of the student beneficiaries of the scheme are those who cannot afford to pay their own fees and the government is pledged to reimburse the fee amount to the colleges under the scheme, but has failed to do so.

The EMMEP  (Erasmus Mundus Minerals and Environmental Programme) is a 2 year M.Sc. program for students in Mining / Geotechnical Engineering, Mineral Processing, Recycling and related academic studies. There are three different specialisations; accommodating groups with 15 to 20 students each.

Joining the EMMEP program is an excellent opportunity to study abroad with a group of international students.

Applications for the 2010-2012 Program have now been closed. For the 2011-2013 programme, applications from Non-European Students can be submitted until November 1st, 2010. European Students can apply until April 1st, 2011. The application form can be found here.

Application for students:

Application deadline:
The application deadline for the Erasmus Mundus EMMEP Master 2011-2013 is:

    * November 1, 2010 for graduate students applying for a scholarship.
    * January 1st, 2011 deadline for sending in TOEFL/IELTS score (where applicable)
    * April 1, 2011 for EU (EEA) graduate students

The application form can be found here: Application form.

EMMEP will notify graduate students upon their elegibility for the scholarship and admission to the program by the end of April 1, 2011.

EU (non third country) students not applying for the scholarship will be notified about their eligibility by May 1, 2011.

Applications are invited from eligible candidates for one position of JRF to carry out research investigations in sponsored research project entitled “Nanoporous polymer membranes for controlled release of fertilizer”, funded by Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO), under the supervision of Dr. Arun M Isloor, Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, Department of Chemistry, NITK, Surathkal. The appointment will be for three (3) years duration. Selected candidate will be encouraged to register for the Ph.D programme at NITK.

Educational Qualifications:

M.Sc in Organic Chemistry with 1st division. Preference will be given to the candidates having experience in synthesis and characterization of organic compounds.

Stipend Per Month: Rs. 12,000/- p.m. + HRA as applicable

Interested eligible candidates may apply by giving full bio-data along with attested copies of all educational and experience certificates on or before September 10th 2010 to Dr. Arun M. Isloor, Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, Department of Chemistry, NITK, Post Shrinivas nagar, Surathkal, Mangalore-575025.

Date of interview will be communicated to eligible candidates through email only. No TA/DA will be paid for attending interview. Selected candidates must be in a position to join immediately.

Further scholarship details:

The Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship Program invites college graduates to apply for full-time, six-to-nine month Fellowships in Washington, DC. Outstanding individuals will be selected to work with nonprofit, public-interest organizations addressing peace and security issues. The purpose of the Fellowship is to provide an opportunity for college graduates to gain practical knowledge and experience by contributing to the efforts of nonprofit, public-interest organizations working on peace and security issues.

Scoville Fellows will choose to work with one of the twenty-six organizations participating in the program. With the assistance of the program director, Fellows will select a placement which best matches their interests and the needs of the host organization. P

Issue Areas Covered by the Scoville Fellowship include the following:
Arms Control/Disarmament, including Nuclear Test Ban, Ballistic Missile; Proliferation/Defense, Conventional Arms Transfers, Weapons Proliferation–Nuclear, Biological and Chemical;
Conflict Prevention/Resolution;
Defense Budget;
Dismantling Chemical and Nuclear Weapons in the former Soviet Union;
Economic Conversion;
Environmental and Energy Security, including the Nexus of Climate Change and Energy Use, Conflict, and Resource Scarcity;
Environmental Impact/Cleanup of Nuclear Weapons Production Complex;
Export Controls;
International Security;
Regional/Ethnic Conflicts, including East Asia, South Asia, Former Yugoslavia, Middle East, Newly Independent States;
United Nations, including UN Peacekeeping.

Required to work alongside a multidisciplinary team of academics comprising of Building modelling, energy and systems engineers, computer and social scientists and design and user interface technologists in partnership with O2, AlertMe and E.ON. The project will provide a vital understanding about how householders’ behaviours relate to their digital media and energy related practice. The project will develop user led energy reduction strategies and interventions that will be trialled in test homes.

The role will involve the day-to-day coordination of the project and have responsibility for delivering the energy modelling aspects of the work.

You must have a good Honours Degree in an energy/engineering related subject. Experience of buildings and their systems and exceptional communication skills is essential.  A relevant PhD, research in building energy and behaviour and knowledge of ICT and digital media would be an advantage.

The project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will investigate production of biodegradable core/shell capsules and gel microbeads, such as alginate, chitosan and poly(lactic acid) using flow focusing glass capillary microfluidic devices.

You will join Micro/Nano- Materials Engineering group whose research interest is centered on production of uniformly sized droplets and particles using membrane emulsification, microchannel emulsification and flow focusing glass capillary devices.

A good honours degree in Science or Engineering and experience in colloid and interface science, particle engineering, microencapsulation, polymer science or related disciplines and excellent communication and interpersonal skills is essential.  A PhD in drop microfluidics, emulsion technology, particle engineering or a similar area and experience in microfluidics and microengineering is desirable.

Curriculum Vitae will only be accepted if accompanied by a completed University application form.

Informal Discussions:

For informal discussions, please contact Dr Goran Vladisavljevic (Senior Lecturer) by email or on +44(0)1509 222518

Application Deadline: 28th September 2010

Further fellowship details:

The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews and the Department of Physics at the University of Loughborough offer two post-doctoral fellowships in theoretical condensed matter physics. These positions form part of a collaboration between Dr J. Betouras at Loughborough, Dr C. A. Hooley and Dr A. G. Green at St Andrews to investigate instabilities and phase reconstruction near to quantum critical points.

One fellow will work largely with Dr Betouras in Loughborough and one with Dr Hooley and Dr Green in St Andrews. In both cases the fellow will be expected to work both independently and collaboratively with the local team of post-docs and graduate students and also to engage with the groups’ international collaborators. The latter will be supported by a generous travel budget.

You should have a PhD in theoretical physics and experience in field theories of condensed matter systems, along with evidence of your capacity to work as an independent researcher, for example through published papers. Experience of quantum critical systems is preferable, but not essential. The appointments will be made for 3 years starting around October 2010.

Applicants may apply to both positions and any applicants appearing on shortlists at both institutions will be interviewed only once, although they will still be considered at both institutions.

Job Description:  We are seeking to fill a new postdoctoral position to join the PLATO team working at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge which has a leading role in the development of the data processing and analysis system for this candidate ESA mission (for more details see http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=104).

The PLATO team, located at the Institute of Astronomy, is responsible for developing the exoplanet processing system for all the photometric data produced by the Plato satellite. These data, together with the other data products of the mission, will enable the discovery of a large sample of confirmed exo-solar planet systems, with importantly, the ability to detect new earth like exo-solar planets.

The exo-solar planet analysis system pipeline will take as input baseline reduced photometric lightcurves from each of the ~40 PLATO onboard telescopes. The pipeline will include algorithms tuned to search for photometric transits, the signatures of orbiting planets.

At this stage, the PLATO mission is being assessed by ESA as one of three candidate missions, with two to be selected and the first then to launch in ~2018. The new post holder will work with the IoA Plato team and be responsible for an initial assessment of relevant techniques and processes of potential relevance in the development of the PLATO pipeline.

This post requires a completed (or soon to complete) doctoral degree in astronomy or a closely related science subject, with emphasis on data processing techniques.

Previous experience with relevant data processing methods would be an advantage.

The post will begin Oct 2010 or as soon as possible thereafter and at this stage is for a fixed term of 6 months. Possible extension depends on future funding, and the selection of PLATO at the next evaluation point in summer 2011.

Applications should be sent to Ms Joy McSharry, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA or jpm(at)ast.cam.ac.uk and include CV, publications list and completed CHRIS/6 form Parts 1 and 111 available from http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/forms/chris6/ with details of at least two referees.

Closing date: 10 September 2010

For further scholarship information