DISCIPLINARY TRAINING

The mandatory 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.

The lectures are divided into two periods: I semester (November – February); II semester (March – July).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 for the 38^th, 39^th and 40^th cycle can be found in

PhD_course&syllabi_38

PhD_course&syllabi_39

PhD_course&syllabi_40

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

MULTIDISCIPLINARY, INTERDISCIPLINARY, TRANSDISCIPLINARY TRAINING

The training project includes elements of inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinarity, which are mainly provided by the UNIPA Doctoral School which organizes seminars every two months.

The main activities are:

- Knowledge of European and International research systems, with particular attention to aspects concerning cooperation in research activities and funding systems

- Development of dissemination/communication capabilities of research, technology transfer and entrepreneurship activities

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.