The course encompasses several different educational and societal objectives:

• Societal demand for multi-domain expertise to tackle the challenges posed by observing and modelling complex systems;
• The need to train postgraduate students with high levels of interdisciplinary fluency and team working skills; and,
• A demand for highly trained research scientists able to drive data analysis on feature- rich sets of data from diverse sources.

The course has four primary objectives for the training it will provide:

• To develop students’ expertise in the techniques used to study planets, from the Earth’s deepest past, the solar system planets, to exoplanets;
• To give students a working knowledge of the structure of life, its essential physical- chemical requirements, and its impacts on planetary environments;
• To ensure students get essential practical experience in running a research project in an interdisciplinary team; and,
• To build students’ capacity in modern data handling techniques and convey an awareness of the wide range of academic and industrial applications of these skills.

The course will benefit students seeking to pursue a variety of careers:

• Academic research careers in planetary or exoplanetary science, evolutionary biology, or Earth sciences;
• Careers as research leaders in high-technology enterprises; and,
• Consultants, assimilating complex multi-domain information and communicating results to stakeholders and teams.

The Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience (PDN) offers excellent opportunities and facilities for training in research, leading to the degree of PhD (Doctor of Philosophy).

It is our aim to develop in our students the skills required to submit a satisfactory PhD thesis at the end of three or four years or part-time over five years. To achieve this, a student will have acquired the essential skills required to design and conduct experiments (including applying for ethics approval where necessary), analyse results, and communicate these both in writing and orally. These skills will include those that can be transferred successfully to their choice of academic or other careers.

The PhD at the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience is achieved by supervised research and is under the jurisdiction of the Degree Committee for the Faculty of Biology. The Postgraduate School of Life Science also helps by providing additional transferable skills training. Within the department, the internal Departmental Postgraduate Educational Committee is responsible for all aspects of the running of the degree. A suitable project that falls within the interests of the Supervisor and is sustainable within the limits imposed by the facilities available in the department is agreed upon by both the student and Supervisor and endorsed by the Postgraduate Committee at the point of admission. Each postgraduate student has a primary Supervisor, who will supervise the main body of their research, and an academic advisor, who acts as a supplementary source of advice and support.

Students attend a variety of seminars given by distinguished scientists and are also able to present their research by giving seminars at our annual symposium, usually in their first year and at our weekly seminar series in their third year.

The majority of students start in October, but it is also possible to start in January or April. The department has over 40 potential PhD supervisors and a flourishing postgraduate community with over 100 research students. Full information on potential supervisors and research projects can be found on the Postgraduate Education page on the department website. Candidates are required to contact potential supervisors before applying. General enquiries concerning postgraduate opportunities within the Department of PDN can also be directed to postgradinfo@pdn.cam.ac.uk. Initial enquiries should be made as early as possible.

The MASt in Physics is a taught master's-level course which is designed to act as a top-up course for students who already hold a three-year undergraduate degree in physics (or an equivalent subject with similar physics content) and who are likely to wish to subsequently pursue research in physics, either within the Department or elsewhere.

The course aims to bring students close to the boundaries of current research and is thus somewhat linked to the expertise from within the specific research groups in the Department of Physics. Candidates make a series of choices as the year proceeds which allow them to select a bias towards particular broad areas of physics such as condensed matter physics, particle physics, astrophysics, biophysics, or semiconductor physics. The emphasis can range over the spectrum from strongly experimental to highly theoretical physics, and a range of specialist options are available.

All students also undertake a substantial research project, which is expected to take up one-third of their time for the year. MASt students study alongside the fourth-year students taking the physics part of the integrated Cambridge Natural Science course, commonly referred to as Part III physics. Details of the current Part III physics course can be found on the Department of Physics website. Please note that the courses available to students may change from year to year (especially the Minor Topic courses taken in the Lent term) and so this year's course listing should only be used as a guide to what courses might be available in future.

The PhD in Physics is a full-time period of research that introduces or builds upon research skills and specialist knowledge. Students are assigned a research Supervisor, a specialist in part or all of the student's chosen research field, and join a research group that might vary in size between a handful to many tens of individuals.

Although the Supervisor is responsible for the progress of a student's research programme, the extent to which a postgraduate student is assisted by the Supervisor or by other members of the group depends almost entirely on the structure and character of the group concerned. The research field is normally determined at entry after consideration of the student's interests and the facilities available. The student, however, may work within a given field for a period of time before their personal topic is determined.

There is no requirement made by the University for postgraduate students to attend formal courses or lectures for the PhD. Postgraduate work is largely a matter of independent research and successful postgraduates require a high degree of self-motivation. Nevertheless, lectures and classes may be arranged, and students are expected to attend both seminars (delivered regularly by members of the University and by visiting scholars and industrialists) and external conferences. Postgraduate students are also expected to participate in the undergraduate teaching programme at some time whilst they are based at the Cavendish, in order to develop their teaching, demonstrating, outreach, organisational and person-management skills.

It is expected that postgraduate students will also take advantage of the multiple opportunities available for transferable skills training within the University during their period of research.

The MPhil is offered by the Department of Physics as a full-time period of research and introduces students to research skills and specialist knowledge. Its main aims are:

• to give students with relevant experience, at a first-degree level, the opportunity to carry out focused research in the discipline under close supervision; and
• to give students the opportunity to acquire or develop skills and expertise relevant to their research interests.

The programme is designed to begin to equip students for engineering leadership positions, developing a high level of understanding and skills in photonic and electronic systems, in particular, the fundamentals of the field together with technology, systems and applications knowledge, and some research experience.

Accordingly, the programme aims to:

develop strong business awareness in MRes graduates and foster an understanding of the foundations of management theory and the connections between technology, management and entrepreneurship;

encourage an appreciation of applications drivers for photonic systems technologies and the business, road-mapping and cost analysis tools used to determine the adoption of new technological solutions;

expose the students to a range of technology areas and provide an experience of a variety of different research and development cultures;

encourage students to study across discipline boundaries, with the resultant enhancement of interdisciplinary understanding; and

equip the graduates of the programme with generic communications skills as well as research-specific training, which would put them in an excellent position to continue on to a doctoral research programme.

This MPhil is a full-time course that introduces students to the skills needed in philosophical research. Students work with supervisors to write two research essays: the first of up to 4,000 words, the second of up to 8,000 words; and a dissertation of up to 12,000 words. Students also participate as a group in a collaborative weekly seminar, run during the first (Michaelmas) and second (Lent) terms, in which they learn presentation and discussion skills by presenting their own research and discussing presentations by other students.

The main aims of the MPhil are:

• to give students with relevant experience at first-degree level the opportunity to carry out focused research in the discipline under close supervision
• to give students the opportunity to acquire or develop skills and expertise relevant to their research interests

• To provide students with specialist knowledge and understanding of philosophical ideas and concepts at the frontiers of philosophical debate and research;
• to enable students to acquire and develop the skills necessary to conduct critical analysis and evaluation at the highest levels; and
• to develop the student’s ability to analyse and evaluate different methods for conducting independent and collaborative research.

The PhD course offers close supervision and extensive training and is the standard entrance to the academic profession. The Faculty welcomes applications for this degree in a wide range of philosophical areas. The PhD culminates in the production of a thesis of up to 80,000 words to be submitted between three and four years from the commencement of study for full-time study. The PhD may also be done part-time, in which case the deadline for completion will be a minimum of five and a maximum of seven years. An oral examination will be conducted on the subject of the thesis and the general field of knowledge within which it falls.

The PhD degree is awarded for an extended thesis that makes a substantial original contribution to learning.