This note is intended for students interested in joining my laboratory as a

trainee, project assistant or research fellow.

I welcome applications from students trained in any branch of science or engineering, especially from those who have been trained to think quantitatively. Since I receive too many applications for me to reply to in a meaningful manner, I provide some information which may be useful to you if you choose to apply to become a member of my laboratory.

You are encouraged to apply only if you are genuinely interested in the work my laboratory does. I expect your interest to motivate you sufficiently for you to send to me, as part of your application, a 500 word description of what work you would like to do in my laboratory. This proposal should be based on your reading of papers published from my laboratory or elsewhere. I do not consider applications which only make statements such as "I am interested in protein folding", or which merely request training.

Once I am convinced that you have a real interest in working in my laboratory, I shall ask you to come and meet me to discuss your research interests, and I will ask you to have reference letters sent to me on your behalf. I will then be able to make a decision about whether I can accept you into my laboratory. Of course, it will help if you have pre-qualified yourself by having become a recipient of a CSIR fellowship.

I have described to you the only route into my laboratory for students not selected into the NCBS PhD program. Please do not come to meet me, or send me email enquiring about the possibility of becoming a member of my laboratory, without first preparing the 500 word proposal as described above.

Before I agree to have you as a member of my laboratory, I will expect you to first commit to working for a certain minimum duration (and I make exceptions here only rarely), as follows:

Summer trainees: 9 weeks
Long term trainees: 5 months
Project assistants and research fellows: 2 years

Please do not apply unless you will be able to make such a commitment.

Please note that for training, I give preference to students selected as summer research fellows by the Indian Academy of Sciences or the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre.

Please note that research fellows at NCBS, including CSIR fellows, cannot become PhD students, unless they get selected into the NCBS PhD program, through interviews held by NCBS for this purpose. Information on the selection procedure is available under Applying to NCBS on the NCBS web site.

Jayant Udgaonkar