The Institute of Advanced Study in Science & Technology (IASST) was set up in 1979 by the Assam Science Society with the prime objective of setting up a premier research establishment in the NE region to deal with problems of the north east in particular and the country in general. The Institute was inaugurated by the Nobel Laureate Prof. Dorothy Hodgkin on 3rd November 1979. The Assam Science Society provided the necessary facilities at the beginning and The Government of Assam provided a lump sum annual grant-in-aid to the Institute since 1991-92 to carry out research in frontier areas of science & technology.
The IASST was registered as a separate entity in 1991 under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 under Regd. No. 4219 of 1990-91. The Institute was later shifted to its present location near "Deepar beel", a natural lake in western side of Guwahati, in June 2004.

The Institute has been recently taken over as an autonomous research Institute by the Government of India under the Department of Science and Technology.

IASST has four basic divisions:

• Material Sciences
• Life Sciences
• Resource Management and Environmental Sciences
• Mathematical Sciences.

In Material Science Division, considerable theoretical as well as experimental research works in Plasma have been carried out. The polymer group is actively engaged in synthesis of polymeric ions, polymer foams, liquid crystalline polysulfones, Nano-Polymerization.
Life Science Division has been conducting research on bioprospecting of medicinal and aromatic plants, development of seribiotechnology, bio-control of pests, bio-fertilizer, bio-pesticide.

The main focus of the Resource Management and Environmental Division is bio-treatment of crude oil sludge, biodesulfurization, bio-remediation, documentation of bio-resources.
The mathematical Science Division confines its research activities to Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics. The division has been carrying out research on sequences, series and summability theory, game theory and reliability theory.

Annual Report