TESTEMUNHOS
The Doctoral program in Astronomy provided me with an amazing opportunity to gain expertise in various aspects of the field, ranging from the core scientific goals to computational competence. The program also exposed me to relevant scientific networking and fostered participation in international consortia. The knowledge gained during the PhD has directly paved the way for my current role as a Post-doctoral researcher and I still depend a lot on the expertise I learnt.
Babatunde Akinsanmi
My main motivation in doing science is willing to better understand our universe in all its aspects. I obtained my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in physics in Iran, where I am originally from. Following that, in 2010, I was accepted into the PDA programme at the University of Porto. The programme was well-structured and gave me a broad overview of astrophysics, which helped me in deciding on a topic for my PhD project. PDA provided me the opportunity to learn and practice how to work within an intentional team, with people who have different expertise from pure theoretical astrophysics to the pure observational astrophysics. During my PhD I was fortunate enough to perform several observing missions, including one at 3.6-m telescope at La Silla (ESO) using HARPS spectrograph. I had wonderful classmates and colleagues who eventually became my best friends. They were supportive, intelligent, and enjoyable to be around. We stayed close after graduation, and we continued to support and encourage each other in our work and personal lives. In 2014, I successfully defended my PhD thesis, and later I was awarded two highly competitive research grants: a DFG research grant (German Research Foundation) and IAC Genérico fellowship from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the program and am grateful for the valuable education and experiences it provided.
Mahmoudreza Oshagh
I really enjoyed doing my PhD within the PDA program and it was a successful first step to continue my research career. The program is fully dedicated to research without additional observing or teaching duties. In my opinion, this is an advantage as we can fully immerse ourselves in research. The first year classes gave us a common basis to work from and the yearly evaluation helped us understand how our work was progressing. The planetary group in which I worked is friendly and meets regularly while keeping a relaxed working environment. The language of the PDA is English and my cohort was international which helped my integration within the institute.
Solène Ulmer-Moll
The nature of the PDA program includes astronomy modules during the first year. This provides an opportunity for International students to be up-to speed with the different vital components of astronomy. This component of the PhD program allowed me to fill some of the gaps I had in various astronomy research fields. In addition, the student centered weekly seminar meetings at IA highly accelerated my process during the PhD program.
Benard Nsamba
By the time I was doing my Master's in Astronomy, I had no doubt that the next step in my academic career would be the PhD. There were way too many questions in the field of star formation to be left unanswered. Thankfully, I had the amazing opportunity to do my PhD under a cotutelle program between Portugal (FCUP) and France (Observatoire de Paris).
The PDA gave me the chance to meet and learn from outstanding teachers, researchers, students and so many others that left a footprint in this memorable adventure. With the PDA, you can count with enhancing your critical thinking, developing your programming expertise, improving your communication and time management skills, at least.
Although I am currently working as a data scientist in the insurance sector, I can assure you that I’m using many of the tools I learned during those research years on a daily basis. If you want to be challenged, the PDA is the way to go.
Raquel Albuquerque