The University of Hyderabad (UoH) has instituted the Golden Jubilee Interdisciplinary Research Medal for PhD in Chemistry, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences to be awarded from 2024, the Golden Jubilee year of the formation of the University.
Following are the eligibility criteria of the medal:
A) The medal will be for the students working in the areas of interfacial research registered in the Schools of Chemistry, Life Sciences, and Medical Sciences as well as in the external centres recognized by these Schools and covering fundamental research in the areas of Chemistry/ Life Sciences/ Medical Sciences and their Medicinal/ Pharmaceutical applications. PhD candidates from any new external centres to be added in the future to the three Schools mentioned in the medal category, namely Chemistry, Life Sciences, Medical Science will become eligible for the medal in the subsequent years.
B) The PhD thesis should cover at least two of the defined areas from chemistry, life sciences, medical/ pharmaceutical sciences.
C) The PhD student must have at least one chapter in the thesis that has a collaborative interdisciplinary component which preferably should involve joint work with a faculty from any one of the other Schools listed (other than the School in which the student is submitting his/ her PhD degree). Given the ever broadening nature of research across newer disciplines beyond the original subject silos with time, and that AI-ML (artificial intelligence, machine learning) and digitization of medical diagnostics, accurate/ improved testing protocols are also a part of medicine/ pharmaceutics, the PhD candidates from the above defined three Schools of UoH namely, Chemistry, Life Sciences and Medical Sciences may if they desire can collaborate with PhD scholars in Schools such as Computer and Information Sciences, Physics, and Engineering Sciences and Technology.
D) The interdisciplinary research component should have been published in a peer reviewed journal at the time of thesis submission. The work being considered for the interdisciplinary medal should reflect as being beyond the boundary of the research group in which the student is registered and the School in which the thesis is submitted, and falling into one or other of the Schools in terms of inter-disciplinarity.
E) The candidate with the inter-disciplinary work component published in the highest Impact Factor journal will be given due credit for the same. The total number of papers published till submission of the thesis from inter-disciplinary work and their cumulative IF shall be given weightage.
“The institution of this medal which is to be awarded from 2024 is a wonderful initiative and is built on the interdisciplinary nature of education and research in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. It will be a further boost to the academic growth of the research scholars and also to the university as an Institution of Eminence”, said Prof. B J Rao, Vice Chancellor, UoH.