DISCIPLINARY TRAINING

Starting from the 38th cycle (A.A. 2022/23), the frontal training activities foreseen for the students of the PhD in Physical and Chemical Sciences amount to 60 hours.

These activities include participation in disciplinary courses dedicated to PhD students, distinct from those taught in first and second level degree courses. Each student can select 3 courses (each of 20 hours), the choice is agreed by the teaching staff according to the needs of the students. The recognition of the educational activities is carried out through the evaluation of the contents of the courses chosen by the students, for a total of 3 exams.

The list of courses currently activated is shown here (more details on the contents of the individual courses can be found in PhD_course&syllabi).

• Advanced microscopy and spectroscopy techniques applied to nanomaterials
• Advanced time resolved spectroscopy
• Organic/Inorganic Nanocomposites: thermodynamics, structure, and applications
• Numerical methods for out-of-equilibrium statistical physics
• Open quantum systems and quantum machine learning
• Experimental techniques in astroparticle physics
• Extrasolar Planets
• Project Management in the Scientific-Spatial Context
• Introduction to DFT and TDDFT
• Astrophysics laboratory of thermal X-ray plasmas
• Millisecond Pulsars: Theory and Observations
• Introduction to agent-based models
• Quantum field theory in a curved spacetime or in non-inertial frames
• Quantum optics & topology in photonic lattices
• Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis Methods in Physics Education Research

The training activity also includes the attendance of seminars held by both researchers from the University of Palermo and external researchers (Italian and foreign). Thanks to the topics covered, PhD students have the opportunity to be constantly informed of recent progress in the research topics of the Department of Physics and Chemistry

LANGUAGE TRAINING

The seminar activities are carried out in English. The thesis is written in English. The CLA (Ateneo Language Center) organizes language training courses open to PhD students. The CLA also provides Italian courses for foreigners open to foreign students of the PhD program.

INFORMATICS

The research activity of the PhD program includes the use of advanced mathematical calculation programs (Matlab, Mathematica and dedicated codes) and specific software for the different areas:

• Computing System for Numerical Astrophysics, IDL, R, PYTHON with specialized libraries for astrophysics
• Quantum and Molecular Mechanics Software: Gaussian, SIESTA, Psi3, Molpro, Dirac10, NWCHEM, VASP, DL_POLY; molecular visualization programs: Molden, Molekel, gOpenMol.
• Atomistic simulation software (NAMD, VMD, MDAnalysis, HOLE, GIMP, Inkskape,
• Pymol, Rasmol, Avogadro, Clulstal X, Jmol, Grace)
• PhD students also have the opportunity to participate in the matlab school coorganized annually by the Department of Physics and Chemistry.

RESEARCH MANAGEMENT, KNOWLEDGE OF RESEARCH SYSTEMS AND FINANCING SYSTEMS

The University organizes a series of training days dedicated to the management of research, knowledge of research systems and funding systems, directed to researchers and students of PhD courses.