MUMBAI: Chitraang Murdia , last year’s All-India JEE (Advanced) topper, is planning to quit his B.Tech course to pursue physics abroad. The Udaipur boy chose computer science at IIT-Bombay last year.

“Computer science is interesting, but my passion lies in physics. I want to do research, probably in quantum theory,” said Murdia, who has got admission to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with scholarship, and two other top institutes.

“At a time students good in physics and maths are following the herd to seek admission to courses such as computer science and electrical engineering, Murdia is a rare example of a student pursuing his interest in pure science,” said Vijay Singh, ex-professor, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR. Singh trained Murdia for International Physics Olympiad when he was in Class XII (he won the gold medal).

Currently, Murdia is doing a physics project in electron-electron interaction with Singh under the National Initiative on Undergraduate Science (NIUS). “If students interested in pure science are challenged with problems instead of just rote learning promoted by coaching institutes, then many more will be inspired to pursue science,” said Singh. Programmes like NIUS are helping more students to pick up projects at the undergraduate level.

Raghu Mahajan, the 2006 IIT-JEE topper, too had quit computer science and engineering from IIT-Delhi after two years to pursue physics, said Singh, and is pursuing a PhD at Stanford. Mahajan too won a gold medal at the Olympiad and did a project under NIUS.

This year, the JEE (Main) topper from Maharashtra, Sankalp Gaur, who secured 345 marks in the exam, is keen on pursuing physics. Though he is preparing for JEE (Advanced), his father, Mukul, said his interests lie in nuclear physics and astrophysics. “He wants to join the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He might do his undergraduate programme from IIT in engineering physics.”

IIT-Bombay director Devang Khakhar said many students switch subjects after the first year. Former IISc director P Balaram said it cannot be called a trend as very few good, focussed and motivated students manage to make the switch. “An average good student takes much longer to decide... Students who are exposed to competitions like the Olympiad know of the options. JEE is not a test of what students want to do. The first rank is not something a student would have planned for.” He said that in India there are very few good institutes to pursue pure science and so getting in is very difficult, unlike abroad.

Subrata Ray, a retired professor with the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, said job options for physics students are limited. “A candidate manages to get a secured job only when he turns 30, whereas in engineering he gets it as soon as he graduates.”

Also, he said, “The government has not managed to generate interest among students equivalent to the amount of money set aside for the development of science.”

