The M. P. Birla Institute of Fundamental Research has been established as a Society for undertaking research in streams of natural and applied sciences in various disciplines of science, engineering and technology.

The Society was founded solely for educational and academic purposes, with the main aim being, to set up and maintain suitable infrastructure for organizing and carrying out fundamental research work.

The Society, registered under the West Bengal Societies Act 1961, has its Head Office at Kolkata.

With a view to broaden the scope of its activities in other parts of the country, the Society opened a Center at Bangalore in the month of October 2000 under the name of "M. P. Birla Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore" with the main aim of teaching and conducting research work in Astronomy, Astrophysics and other related fields.

This Institute is recognised as a Centre for Research for conducting programmes leading to Ph.D. degree in Physics (with specialization in Astrophysics) under the jurisdiction of Bengaluru City University.

Academic Programmes:

The academic programmes which are presently taken up at the Bangalore Institute are given below:

1. Summer School in Astronomy and Astrophysics
2. 100 hour certificate course in Astronomy and Astrophysics
3. Citizen Astronomy/General Astronomy for the general public
4. Astrobiology and Astrochemistry
5. Solar Astronomy
6. Radio Astronomy
7. Cosmology

Infrastructure:

The Institute at Bangalore is presently located in the 2nd floor of the M. P. Birla Research Centre on the Race Course Road in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Campus with convenient logistic connections from all parts of Bangalore. The Institute consists of a well equipped and air conditioned class room, office accommodation and a good library.

Offline lectures for all theory classes are delivered at the premises of the Institute.

Faculty:

The faculty for this Institute consists of permanent teaching staff at the Institute as well as the Scientists and Professors from various scientific institutes and research organizations in and around Bangalore such as, IISc., RRI, IIA and ISRO including the Professors from the Physics Department of the Bangalore University. Members of the faculty also provide guidance to the students in various academic activities, like dissertation work, research programmes and so on.

The in-house faculty consists of

Research:

The institute conducts research predominantly in the following fields:

• Research in Open Star Clusters
  
• Research in Ap Stars

Interesting Quote...

No one can read the history of astronomy without perceiving that Copernicus, Newton, Laplace, are not new men, or a new kind of men, but that Thales, Anaximenes, Hipparchus, Empodocles, Aristorchus, Pythagorus, Oenipodes, had anticipated them.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson