Doctoral study

Doctoral study in GEOPHYSICS

PhD studies in physics-geophysics are tailored as a logical continuation of undergraduate and graduate courses in physics and geophysics at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics of the Zagreb University. Besides the thorough knowledge of general physics, advanced mathematical skills, and methods of data-processing, it is expected that students have a solid background in fundamentals of fluid dynamics, climatology, observational and dynamic meteorology and physical oceanography if they aim at specialization of meteorology or oceanography. For the study with the emphasis on seismology, subjects like the theory of elasticity, basics of the physics of the Earth’s interior, advanced seismology courses, or engineering seismology, are a prerequisite. Students who completed graduate programmes other than geophysics, can enrol subject to completing differential courses prior to admittance, which will be assigned by the Joint Council of the Departments of Physics and Geophysics.

After completing the doctoral studies in physics (branch: geophysics), students will gain competences needed to start or continue their scientific careers in the disciplines of meteorology, physical oceanography, seismology, and aeronomy & earth magnetism. The lectures are given at the premises of the Department of Geophysics (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Zagreb). The Department is the leading Croatian geophysical institution in education as well as in scientific research, with a good and established cooperation with other professional geophysical organizations in Croatia (oceanographic institutes, State Meteorological and Hydrological Service, whereas the Department itself hosts the Croatian Seismological Survey as its constitutive part).

 Students have on their disposal the largest geophysical library in Croatia and excellent computing facilities (including e.g. the state-of-the-art multiprocessor parallelized computers) with fast and unrestricted free internet access. The students will also have access to the pool of instruments needed to conduct their research (meteorological stations and a 60 m high tower data, seismographs, oceanographic equipment, magnetometers…), as well as free use of relevant databases owned by the Department of Geophysics. We anticipate that up to 5 students will be enrolled each year.

The PhD thesis should be a comprehensive and detailed account of the research done under the supervision of the mentor. The research subject and plan must be approved by the Joint Council of the Physics and Geophysics Departments. Prior to this, students must defend their thesis subject in the course of one of the seminars, by showing that they have relevant knowledge and understanding of the research done so far, and that they can present a sound workplan (hypotheses, methods,…) towards the set goals. The work presented in the thesis must be an equivalent of at least two scientific publications in international journals. Before its defence, at least one paper – of which the candidate must be the first or the only author – must be published (or accepted for publication) in a Current Contents journal. The evaluation Committee will judge the scientific merit of the presented material, and grant the public defence of the thesis if they find that it is original, relevant, and that the above conditions are fulfilled.

According to the University standard, the thesis is written in Croatian. However, whenever at least one member of the evaluation Committee is from abroad, and commits to personally attend the defence, doctoral study Council will allow the thesis be written in English, with an extended abstract in Croatian. The candidates will be encouraged to engage in international collaboration during their research, and to have external members of the Committee.


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