PHD Physics

Course Description

The PhD in Physics was established and is being re-proposed to meet the society's need for advanced training within the scientific-technological disciplines and, specifically, within the physical disciplines. It aims to offer academic training in various fields of theoretical and experimental physics, bringing them closer to the most recent conceptual frameworks proposed to describe physical processes and to the most recent technological, experimental and data analysis developments. 
The activities of the PhD courses are monitored by the advisory committee, which includes members of the PhD board, student representatives and the social partners.  The PhD in Physics course lasts three years. Each student chooses a supervisor in the PhD board based on her/his research interests, and becomes a member of the supervisor’s research group for the entire duration of the course. 
Participation in the activities of a research group, which typically includes non-graduate students as well as postdocs, researchers, and faculty, constitutes a unique teamwork experience and is an important opportunity for inclusion and involvement in international collaborations. PhD students are also strongly encouraged to carry out part of their research activity abroad, and funds specifically provided for in the doctoral grant can be used for this purpose.

Furthermore, PhD students are generally involved in international research collaborations, which include meetings during which they can present their research findings. They then participate in international conferences, congresses, and workshops during which they present the results of their work.
Research is always accompanied by mandatory academic training, including participation in internal courses as well as national and international schools to increase skills in basic and specialized physics. Each training activity (be it a course or a school) ends with an examination. A training activity is also proposed, also mandatory, on cross-cutting topics such as, for example, preparing research projects, writing articles in English, or teaching physics. PhD students can, if they wish, contribute to the tutoring activities related to the Physics courses in the University's various degree courses and to the third mission activities promoted by the DFA and the INFN. At the end of each year, students present their research activity with a public seminar. Furthermore, they are also required to present their research activity at least once during the three-year period in a popular form accessible to non-experts in the field as part of a series of seminars called PRAPI. These seminars are held monthly and are run directly by PhD students with the support of the PhD board. At the end of the course, students prepare a written thesis that is evaluated by two experts in the field and discuss it during a defense in the presence of a jury of specialists from both the PhD board and other national or international institutions

Here you can find a short presentation video of the PhD in Physics, the school and the venue are described by PhD students and Phd Doctors

The research program

Each PhD student may choose a research topic among the very wide set of fields  of competences of the DFA members:

Applied Physics, Astrophysics, Biophysics, Cosmology,  Gravitational Waves Physics, History of Physics, Multimessenger Astroparticle, Neutrino Physics , Nuclear Physics, Physics at  Colliders, Physics Didactics, Physics of Data and  of Complex Systems, Physics of Matter, Quantum Technologies, Theoretical Physics.

The PhD candidate will be assigned a supervisor according to the research topic who will supervise her/his research and training activities. PhD-students join research groups and will work in teams including undergraduate students, post-docs, researchers and faculty members. The team-work experience is in fact an important opportunity for the PhD candidate to be involved and committed in international collaborations.

As part of the research activity, candidates are suggested to spend a research period abroad (up to 18 months) also taking advantage of dedicated funds. The final destination can be chosen by the PhD student upon agreement with the supervisor. Periods of permanence abroad will be funded by the PhD-school and/or by the research group. Although not formally required,PhD students are encouraged to publish the results of their research in at least one publication on peer-reviewed journals before the end of the PhD program.

PHD Research Activity Presentation Initiative (PRAPI)

  

Facilities

Each PhD student has right to an equipped desk in the PhD-students room. A desk, PC and/or a Laptop may also be provided by the research groups. Access to DFA and INFN computing resources are granted upon request. Students involved in experimental activities have access to the DFA laboratories, and/or to the facilities of many national (LNL, LNGS) and international labs (CERN, GANIL, KEK, etc.) collaborating with our research groups. A list of UniPd and DFA Facilities can be found here.

Contacts

In case of questions or doubts, please do not hesitate contact the PhD-school secretary at:
Cristina.Mazzucco [at] unipd.it 
didattica.dfa [at] unipd.it