Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), a Centre of premier nuclear research was established on 30^th April 1971 then named Reactor Research Centre (RRC). It is the second-largest establishment of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and a Constituent Institution (CI) of Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), a deemed to be university. Located along the east coast of Bay of Bengal at Kalpakkam, IGCAR is 80 km south of Chennai (Madras) and 8 km from the historic town Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram). IGCAR has a mandate of delivering Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) and associated closed fuel cycle technologies as part of the 2nd Stage of the Indian Nuclear Power programme and to realize the vision of becoming the world leader in these areas of specialization. The mission also includes the development and applications of new and improved materials, techniques, equipment, and systems for FBRs and associated fuel cycle. At IGCAR, apart from pursuing a mission- oriented technological development, a strong emphasis is placed on basic research as well. Most of our R&D programmes require a strong foundation of physics, chemistry and engineering. Research on topical problems in material, physical, chemical and engineering sciences are being carried out at IGCAR, that contribute towards sustaining the dynamism and robustness of a Research Centre involved in the indigenous development of advanced technologies. It has been our endeavour to nurture young talents to meet the challenges of developing safe, economically competitive and advanced Fast Reactors and associated closed fuel cycle technologies.

Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI) was established by DAE in 2005. It brings together eleven allied premier institutes of DAE, called Constituent Institutions (CI's)/Off campus Centre (OCC) with a mission to encourage the pursuit of excellence in science, engineering, and mathematics. HBNI at IGCAR has awarded about 220 Ph.Ds. to date and about 145 research scholars are currently pursuing their doctoral work in various disciplines. HBNI-IGCAR offers learning that stimulates, challenges, and fulfills the potential of students, leading to, personal development, meaningful careers, and profound contributions to society. Our efforts have been and will continue to be focused on nurturing the talents and shaping them into mature, efficient, and highly productive R&D personnel. "Excellence with Relevance and Human touch" has been the motto of the Centre.

Areas of Research at HBNI-IGCAR

Chemical Sciences:

Chemical thermodynamics, Solid-state, and high-temperature chemistry, Electrochemistry, Spectroscopy and laser, Radiochemistry, Advanced separation techniques, Actinide Chemistry, Trace / ultra-trace analytical techniques. Synthesis and characterization of nano-ceramics and Chemical sensors. Super-hydrophobic coating, Corrosion resistant coating, and evaluation.

Engineering Sciences:

Robotics and Development of Intelligent machines, Thermal Hydraulics and Structural Mechanics, Design of critical components, Modeling studies, Safety Analysis, Wireless networking, Parallel computing, Embedded and Simulator systems, Non-destructive Evaluation and Reliability, Development of new engineering materials, Experimental and computational studies in (i) novel processing and fabrication methods, (ii) mechanical behaviour, (iii) damage tolerance and crack growth and (iv) structure and properties.

Physical Sciences:

Condensed Matter Physics: Basic research on the behaviour of materials at low and high temperatures, high pressures and magnetic fields and exploration of novel properties of materials, emergent physics using heterostructures. Defect solid-state physics: Research on the generation of various defects by heavy ion irradiation and their characterization by various techniques like positron annihilation spectroscopy. Computational physics: Computer simulations of material properties using techniques like DFT and MD. Surface and interface physics: Studies on surfaces, coating and nanomaterials. Radiation resistant polymers, graphene-based functionalized materials. Exploration of materials for sensors and detectors. Magnetic nanomaterials and nanofluids, Thermal-optical-rheological properties of nanofluids. Soft condensed matter. Multiscale computing and experimental Reactor Physics. Radiation physics: Radiation Shielding, Environmental Radiation study, Studies on natural radioactivity, radon and analysis, the interaction of radiation with matter, development of radiation dosimetry - materials and techniques, retrospective dosimetry. Atmospheric Physics: Multiscale Numerical modeling, Data assimilation and forecast, Atmospheric modeling related to dispersion modeling, mesoscale weather phenomena, boundary layer turbulence, cyclone/ storm surge, and wave forecasting.

While the first ten institutions are Constituent Institutions (CI) of HBNI, NISER is an Off-campus Centre (OCC) of HBNI. The Institute has a distributed structure and is a unitary deemed to be university. Its CIs have already been carrying out advanced research and development for several decades. These have made India self-reliant in this sensitive and advanced field of national importance.