The University of Trento welcomes applications for admission to the 40th cycle of the PhD in Physics, for positions starting on November 1, 2024 (see here for Italian link, here for English link, and here for much more detailed information): this year we have a total of 19 positions, 14 of which with scholarship, and 4 of which are “open positions”, i.e. not tied to any specific topic. Applicants interested in working within the Theoretical Gravitation and Cosmology group (basically either with me or Prof. Rinaldi) would be competing for these 4 “open positions” - however, another possible channel for working with us is to apply for one of the 3 INFN funded-positions (Section “D, E - Particle, astroparticle, nuclear, theoretical physics, related technologies and applications, including medical Physics”), which are de facto “open positions” (as long as the topic one ends up working on is related to INFN research themes, for instance the group’s current PhD students Chiara Cecchini and Davide Pedrotti were awarded one of these positions). I cannot stress enough that competition for these positions is extremely strong, with an oversubscription ratio much higher than for the other (reserved) positions: a corollary is that there is no guarantee our group will be taking new PhD students, given that it really depends on the personal interests of those who will be awarded these positions (however, I can anticipate that I will be taking a most one new PhD student - for a rough guideline on possible topics one could work on with me, please see this link, section “First call 40°cycle - Other research topics”, subsection “FT - Theoretical and computational physics”, and refer to the topic “Dark matter and dark energy in the era of precision multi-messenger cosmology and cosmic tensions (Vagnozzi)”). If you are interested in working with us, please make this very clear in your “lettera motivazionale” (“statement of purpose”), which plays an extremely important role in the evaluation of candidates, so please take it very seriously. The application deadline is May 15, 2024 at 16:00 Italy time, but applicants are strongly encouraged to apply well in advance of the deadline - if you are interested in working within our group, please do not hesitate to reach out either to me or Prof. Rinaldi (or both) and apply as soon as possible!
Congratulations to Davide Pedrotti!
Congratulations to Davide Pedrotti, who has won one of the highly competitive “free topic” PhD positions at the University of Trento, financed by INFN! Davide will begin his position at the start of November, and will keep working within our group. Congratulations Davide, and looking forward to continuining working together!
PhD positions at the University of Trento
The selection for admission to the 39th cycle of the PhD in Physics at the University of Trento is now open, see this link. For interested students not familiar with the procedure, this is done at a centralized (departmental) level, rather than by individual supervisors, through a committee of (typically) four people, which varies each year. There are a total of 22+1 positions, 19+1 of which with scholarship, of which 15+1 on a specific topic and the remaining 4 “free”: since I am not funding any “specific topic” position, students interested in working with me will have to compete for the 4 free fellowships, which means that there is no guarantee I will actually get to have an incoming PhD student this year - note that competition for these free fellowships is typically extremely tough, and it is recommended that if you are interested in working with someone specific, you should explicitly mention this in the cover letter. For a rough guideline on possible topics one could work on with me, please see this link (Section “First call 39° cycle - Other research topics”), and refer to the topics “Dark matter and dark energy in the era of precision multi-messenger cosmology and cosmic tensions (Vagnozzi)” and “Black holes as windows onto fundamental physics (Vagnozzi)” (note, however, that these are not binding). The deadline for applying is May 31 at 16:00 Italy time - please spread the word, and apply if you are interested!