Updated : August 2026

I. Postdoctoral:

Applications are invited from international and Indian PhD holders for a postdoctoral position in computational and experimental neuroscience in the lab of Prof. Upinder Bhalla at the National Centre for Biological Sciences. Attractive fellowships are available for highly qualified candidates. Applicants are strongly encouraged to work with our office to apply for the NCBS Fellows program and extramural fellowships Postdoctoral Program

Project 1: The development of multiscale models of neuronal and synaptic plasticity, in which molecular, electrical, and network effects interact. The candidate should have experience in neuronal and/or signaling models. Modeling will use the MOOSE simulator (http://moose.ncbs.res.in).

Project 2: Ultrasound brain recording. The candidate should have substantial engineering or hands-on research experience with ultrasound hardware and software.

Project 3: Synaptic Atlas. The candidate should be expert in proteomics and mass-spectrometry, and proficient in data handling. AI and reaction-network modelling skills are desirable.

The National Centre for Biological Sciences is a lively young institution in Bangalore in the south of India. Bangalore is blessed with temperate weather, lots of scientific and technical institutions, and
confusing traffic. NCBS has strong groups in systems neuroscience and theory, and has excellent scientific, living, day-care, and sports facilities. For further details see http://www.ncbs.res.in.

NCBS is an equal opportunity employer.
Prof. Upinder S. Bhalla
National Centre for Biological Sciences
Bellary Road
Bangalore 560065
India.

bhalla [at] ncbs [dot] res [dot] in
+91-80-23666130
http://www.ncbs.res.in/bhalla

II.Graduate students:

The Bhalla lab has a mix of students from very different backgrounds: Biology, computer science, chemistry, physics, and engineering.
Applications to join individual labs at NCBS are usually redirected through the regular PhD admissions process, which offers students more flexibility, and the opportunity to do lab rotations to find out more about which groups they would like to join. At present any students joining the Bhalla lab should expect to work in joint supervision with a co-guide from within NCBS.

III.Technical and programming positions:

I . Multiscale Object Oriented Simulation Environment is a general purpose simulation system including the domains of Computational Neuroscience and Systems Biology. It is written in C++ and can be run as a stand-alone command-line-interaction program or used as a library into Python scripts. In collaboration with the group of Subhasis Ray at CHINTA, Kolkata, we are open to talented software developers MOOSE.

Software developers may be considered for the following roles:
I. GUI developer

Role : Develop graphical user interface for MOOSE.

Required skills : GUI programming using any modern tool-kit like Java Swing/Qt/GTK. Familiarity with C/C++/Python and Qt will be an added advantage. Should be aware of multi-threading and its use and impact on GUI event handling. OpenGL
experience is also useful.

II . Numerical/Parallel programming.
Role: Developing numerical algorithms and optimizing parallel computations
in the MOOSE simulator. Finite element, finite difference, stochastic, optimization, and other numerical computational experience is valuable. Applicants should be extensively familiar with C++ and interested in numerical and parallel methods.

For either of the software developer positions, please plan for a probation period of a month prior to selection. Applicants should commit for at least a year.