The Department of Mathematics & Statistics, since its inception, is committed to excellence of instruction and scholarship. As an integral part of IISER Kolkata, it is devoted to the objective of integrating education with research so as to disseminate research-based knowledge and to provide maximal research opportunities at all levels of the curriculum. In a department where a faculty member is more a facilitator of the learning process than just an instructor, each student is given individual attention along with an exposure to research activity at a level found only in the elite institutes of highest order. While Mathematics can be studied and pursued for its own sake, the department acknowledges the ever-increasing role of Mathematics in the advancement of various disciplines.
This is a five-year programme where students are admitted through an annual selection after the completion of high school. An MS degree is obtained on successful completion of the programme. In the first year, there are courses on all five basic sciences i.e. Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Mathematics and Physics following which three pre-major subjects are selected out of the aforementioned five in the second year. The major subject is chosen out of the pre-majors at the third year. The programme requires a project to be executed at the fifth year for its completion.
This is a 2-year programme offering masters in pure mathematics. Students are selected based on written tests held each year. It was felt that in the present era, due to various applications of mathematics in biology, computer science, linguistics, apart from its classical use in physics and other basic sciences, a solid understanding of basic mathematics has become more important. In the fourth semester, the students have an opportunity to do a project under a faculty mentor. There are some elective courses that the students may also choose from in their last semester.
The department is currently not taking students through its IPhD programme as of 2022.
This is the regular PhD programme where students are admitted after the completion of masters degree. The programme consists of coursework in the first year following which research work is carried out under the supervision of a faculty member of the department. There is an option of joint-supervision as well in this programme. The Department of Mathematics & Statistics at IISER Kolkata has an active, lively and growing group of researchers in various areas of Mathematics and Statistics. In Mathematics and Statistics, the areas of research are Algebraic Geometry, Algebraic Topology, Bayesian Modelling, Biological Networks, Calculus of Variations, Commutative Algebra, Computational Neuroscience, Fluid Mechanics, Functional Analysis, Graph Theory, Nonlinear Analysis, Nonlinear Dynamics, Theory of Outliers, Operator Theory, Partial Differential Equations, Reliability Theory, and Statistical Pattern Recognition.
