The decision to pursue PhD should always be well-thought, well-researched and discussed decision. A PhD is a long-term commitment demanding your personal and professional time, but with definitive fruitful returns for your career growth. Thus, here we discuss a few critical pointers before you decide to pursue PhD in Biotechnology. First and foremost, before taking this decision you should evaluate and zero down on your research interests and broadly identify the area in which you wish to contribute. One can work on societal challenges through biotechnological innovations, address clinical challenges such as develop precise diagnostics, or efficacious drug and drug delivery systems, give sustainable solutions to clean up the environmental toxins, use computational approaches such as AI and machine learning to predict structure and functions of biomolecules etc. Identifying a well-funded and recognised laboratory/research group working in the same area is a good move. Additionally, one should evaluate the minimum requirements for PhD enrolment and completion of a PhD program. The PhD program should be supportive of student’s learning and research implementation. One should also asses their scientific communication skills – oral and written, as well have the qualities of perseverance and resilience. PhD in Biotechnology can open up diverse career options – one can teach in a University/Institute, research scientist in an agency or an industry set-up, one can start their own start-up based on your own research, regulatory officer in government or private agencies, patent attorney, scientific content creator/writer.
Department of Biotechnology at JIIT offers one such flexible, research intensive and enriched PhD program. The state-of-the-art laboratories are well equipped with advanced instruments accessible to all students. The PhD program is run by the very capable and highly experienced faculty members in Department of Biotechnology at JIIT. All the faculty members are PhD. Most faculty members have extra-mural funding from government agencies/industry such as ICMR, DBT, Ministry of AYUSH, UP-CST etc. JIIT also encourages collaborative and inter-disciplinary research and PhDs are ongoing with esteemed institutes across the country e.g. INMAS, DIPAS, NICPR, etc. Department of Biotechnology at JIIT has also recently been given a grant by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India to setup a BioNEST Incubator under the aegis of BIRAC. The research output of the For enrolment in the program an entrance examination cum interview is conducted twice a year (January and July), and students from B.Tech, M.Tech, M.Sc, B.Tech-M.Tech dual degree program are eligible to apply. JIIT offers an attractive fellowship for PhD (3 years) at par with government agencies. The PhD program constitutes a coursework component where we aim to enhance the subject knowledge of the newly enrolled PhD scholar and also work on his scientific communication skills. The scholars are encouraged to participate in national and international conferences/workshops during the entire duration of their doctoral studies. The quality of our PhD program is indicated by our alumni being placed in post-doctoral positions across prestigious institutes globally (USA, France, Germany, Australia), in academic positions in renowned universities/institutes (IISc, IITs) and recently also having started their own entrepreneurial journeys.