IRAP PhD Program


International relativistic astrophysics PhD program, or IRAP PhD program is the international joint doctorate program in relativistic astrophysics initiated and co-sponsored by ICRANet. During 2010-2017 IRAP PhD takes part in the Erasmus Mundus program of the European Commission. For the first time in Europe the IRAP PhD program grants a joint PhD degree among the participating institutions.

Education in relativistic astrophysics

In 2005 a new international organization was founded: the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics Network, dedicated to the theoretical aspects of relativistic astrophysics. Together with the University of Arizona, the University of Stanford and the International Centre for Relativistic Astrophysics, such states as Armenia, Brazil, Italy and the Vatican are the founding members of ICRANet. As a first step, the international relativistic astrophysics Ph.D. program was established in 2005. Among the proponents of the IRAP Ph.D. program are Riccardo Giacconi, Roy Kerr and Remo Ruffini.

The objectives of the program

The IRAP Ph.D. program grants a joint Ph.D. degree among the participating institutions.
The core of the program is the international consortium. It assembles expertise of its members for preparation of scientists in the field of relativistic astrophysics, and related fields of general relativity, cosmology and quantum field theory.
One of the goals of the program is mobility: every student admitted to the IRAP Ph.D. is part of a team at one of the consortium members, and each year visits the other centers to keep track of developments in the other fields. Within the IRAP Ph.D. program, students are systematically trained in the techniques of research management and in the nature and organization of scientific projects.

The consortium

Since 2005 ICRANet has co-organized the IRAP Ph.D. program together with:
As of 2015, the faculty of the IRAP Ph.D. program consists of:
Giovanni Amelino-Camelia
Stefano Ansoldi
Ulisses Barres de Almeida
Vladimir Belinski
Carlo Luciano Bianco
Donato Bini
Sandip Kumar Chakrabarti
Pascal Chardonnet
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Christian Cherubini
Andreas Eckart
Thibault Damour
Jaan Einasto
Sergio Frasca
Filippo Frontera
Jean-Marc Gambaudo
Paolo Giommi
Luis Herrera Cometta
Yipeng Jing
Hagen Kleinert
Michael Kramer
Jutta Kunz-Drolshagen
Luca Lamagna
Claus Lämmerzahl
Olivier Legrand
Francois Mignard
Hermann Nicolai
Kjell Rosquist
Jorge Rueda
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Remo Ruffini
Felix Ryde
Farrokh Vakili
Gregory Vereshchagin
She Sheng Xue
Shuangnan Zhang

Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate (2010-2017)

Launched in 2004 under the Bologna Declaration, the Erasmus Mundus programs have supported academic cooperation and mobility with partner countries to form the joint European Higher Education Area. During 2010-2017 the IRAP Ph.D has taken part in the Erasmus Mundus program of the European Commission and has enrolled 5 cycles of students with the total amount of 44 students. The Nice University was the host organization.

CAPES-ICRANet Program (2013-2018)

In 2013 CAPES and ICRANet have signed a regarding the establishment of the . Each year five fellowships for Brazilian students are granted. Each fellowship lasts for three years with the final Ph.D. degree jointly delivered by the academic institutions participating in the program.

Schools and seminars

Within IRAP Ph.D. program ICRANet organizes Ph.D. schools. In particular 15 schools were held in Nice and Les Houches, France, within the EMJD program:
ICRANet co-organizes a Joint Astrophysics Seminar at the Department of Physics of the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and ICRA in Rome. All institutions collaborating with ICRANet as well as the ICRANet centers participate in these seminars via video conferencing.

Statistics

The official language of the program is English, but students have the opportunity to learn the language of their host country, following a variety of courses at the partner universities.
As of 2015, the IRAP-Ph.D. has seen the enrollment of : 1 from Albania, 3 from Argentina, 5 from Armenia, 1 from Austria, 2 from Belarus, 16 from Brazil, 5 from China, 9 from Colombia, 2 from Croatia, 5 from France, 5 from Germany, 7 from India, 2 from Iran, 34 from Italy, 2 from Kazakhstan, 1 from Mexico, 1 from Pakistan, 4 from Russia, 1 from Serbia, 1 from Sweden, 1 from Switzerland, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from Turkey, 1 from Ukraine.
During 2011-2015 more than 500 applications from 70 countries from all over the world were considered and 44 Ph.D. candidates were selected including roughly 30% female candidates.