[Drand] Start of PhD course on Monday Feb 19: Colloquia in Physics

[Bo Sundborg]

Just a small clarification:
the course should continue in the fall and participants will not be expected to have completed
their 10 colloquia in the spring.

Bo

Den 2018-02-13 08:46 skrev "Bo Sundborg" <bo at fysik.su.se<mailto:bo at fysik.su.se>> följande:

Dear PhD student,
(cc to lecturers)

This is to announce the start of the new broadening PhD course Colloquia in Physics, 10hp.
It will begin with a meeting

Monday February 19, at 13.15 in FB55.

The benefits of a broadening course on PhD level has been discussed for a long time, and now
Fysikum is arranging one. Basically, when you graduate with a PhD you have a PhD in Physics
or in Theoretical Physics, not in (say) Astroparticle Physics or Atomic Physics only. There is actually a unity
of ideas and methods between different fields, even though we also encounter great diversity and many
barriers of communication.

In fact, a common template for successful research is bridging, to take over ideas or methods from one
subfield to another. An example is the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism which was proposed in the paper
of Brout and Englert, based on their familiarity with condensed matter physics, but there are many other
similar stories. Even if you do not aspire to a prize, your work and world view should benefit from broader
perspectives and training in applying them.



Fysikum has decided that this course should be compulsory for PhD students in Physics or Theoretical Physics
accepted after June 2017. I will send out more info automatically to all students in this group and those with
nearby acceptance dates. Older PhD students are also invited to the course, but if you belong to this category
and wish more information, please contact me since I do not wish to overuse the drand mailing list.

Essentially, the course builds on group discussions related to 10 physics colloquia, with one meeting
before each colloquium, then the actual colloquium followed by submission of a short report to be
discussed afterwards on line and in a concluding meeting. I will select a Fysikum lecturer with the topic
of the colloquium in mind to guide your discussions. See the course web page<http://www.fysik.su.se/english/education/practical/coursefacts/coursefacts.php?kurs=FU0001> for more formal details on the
course (also in Swedish<http://www.fysik.su.se/studentportal/kursinformation/schema/kursfakta.php?kurs=FU0001>).

If you cannot take full part in the activities related to one of the colloquia, you can skip that colloquium
since more than ten will be offered. Your full individual collection of ten colloquia should be balanced in
consultation with the course coordinator (me).



The first colloquium offered for the course series will be “The Measurement of Time in the 21st Century<The%20Measurement%20of%20Time%20in%20the%2021st%20Century>”
by Christophe Salomon from Ecole Normale Supérieure, on February 22. Markus Hennrich<https://www.su.se/english/profiles/mhenn-1.222060> will be your
guide lecturer, and will take over the meeting on February 19 after I have informed about the course in
general. The concluding meeting for the first colloquium will take place Thursday afternoon March 1 or
Friday March 2.



More information shortly (for new PhD students and others who opt in).

Best regards,
Bo


____________________________________
Bo Sundborg
Professor
Cosmology, Particle astrophysics and Strings
Department of Physics and the Oskar Klein Centre
Stockholm University
SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: + 46 (0)8 5537 8735
E-mail: bo at fysik.su.se
____________________________________














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