phd students | Scholarship for Nigerians and Africans - Part 31

International PhD Studies in Fundamental Problems of Quantum Gravity and Quantum Field Theory

This is to announce launching of the International PhD Projects Programme (MPD) at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw. MPD is open internationally to all candidates satisfying conditions specified below. It is offering four years PhD program within quantum gravity and quantum field theory for 10 students. The research projects for the PhD students together with the list of the corresponding would-be-supervisors are shown here . For more details concerning MPD consult the web pages of the Foundation for Polish Science .

Application Requirements:

The candidates wishing to apply should select a research project and a supervisor from the list and obligatory provide the following documents:

  1. Request for admission from Internet Candidate Registration System at the University of Warsaw. The candidates have to register on-line via website http://www.irk.uw.edu.pl. In case of any difficulties contact the UW Admissions Office; e-mail: admission@uw.edu.pl, telephone: +48225524043, +48225524048.
  2. Personal data sheet (download Polish or English version)
  3. Photo
  4. Opinion from the place of employment (in case of candidates who graduated in the past and started professional work).
  5. CV
  6. Candidates must be graduate of the post-graduate (2.-degree) studies in domains: physics, technical physics, mathematics. Copy of their graduation diploma must be submitted. His/her M.Sc. diploma must be with the grade: very good (or equivalent) and must be presented together with a detailed list of all courses taken and assessed (with grades obtained for each course) during the study period (the so-called diploma supplement in case of Polish students).
  7. Letter-of-intent, i.e. a short (not more than two pages A4) description of his/her qualifications for particular research project the candidate would like to carry within MPD. He/she should point out how the former education (courses completed, skills acquired) make him/her most eligible for the given project. Letter-of-intent should be prepared in English.
  8. Two evaluations of his/her diploma thesis, prepared by:
    • the thesis tutor (it should include an estimate of candidate scientific activity performed so far)
    • thesis referee
  9. An address data (name, position, affiliation, office address, e-mail, telephone numbers) of at least one referee who might be contacted by the Admission Committee and asked to provide the recommendation letter for the applicant.;
  10. A certificate proving fluency in English as a working language.

Additional documents:

  1. Applicants whose scientific results have been already published should prepare a list his/her publications. In case of several-author articles, the candidate should try to evaluate approximately and state his/her contribution to the paper.
  2. Applicants who during the study period completed extra courses that may have connection with the target-project should present the adequate certificates and brief characterization of the course.
  3. Applicants who successfully passed an entry examination to a PhD program (physics, mathematics and related domains) during last two years and completed no more than one year of the studies may also apply to the MPD program. For these candidates the requirements 1, 2, 3 and 4 do not apply. The candidates should present a reference letter of their tutors within the framework of the actual PhD program containing a detailed evaluation of candidate’s abilities together with the approval of the present tutor of candidate’s application to the MPD.

Recruitment procedure:

The recruitment procedure consists of two stages: the first based on documents provided by a candidate, and the second based on an interview. Only candidates who pass the first stage will be invited for the interview. Documents submitted by the applicants will be considered by Admission Committee composed of 4 to 6 persons, including the would-be-tutors in the MPD project, co-chaired by the persons in charge of the PhD Programme at the Faculty Physics of the University of Warsaw and invited experts. A person representing the Foundation for Polish Science will be invited to the Committee. Only candidates with the highest admission scores will be invited for the interview. In special cases candidates can be interviewed on-line or by the telephone. The Admissions Committee will decide on the form of the interview for each candidate. A supervisor selected by a candidate can participate in the interview but the final judgment is made solely by the Admission Committee. The admission decision is based on the total number of points obtained and with the positive opinion from the prospective supervisor. The total score achieved is not available to the applicant. Candidates have 14 days from the announcement of the decision to appeal the admission decision. If one or more positions is not filled, the recruitment procedure will be repeated for these positions in June 2011.

The deadline for submitting applications is September 15th 2010, 10 AM of Warsaw local time. Only applications received before the deadline will be considered. All documents (in PDF format) should be submitted to the email address: mpd2.rekrutacja@fuw.edu.pl. Any question should be submitted to the same email address.

Contact Person: Joanna Szutta

Email: mpd2.rekrutacja@fuw.edu.pl

Further scholarship details:
Read more: http://scholarship-positions.com/international-phd-studies-in-fundamental-problems-of-quantum-gravity-and-quantum-field-theory/2010/08/20/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ScholarshipPositions+%28International+Scholarships+and+Financial+Aid+Positions%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail#ixzz0y5WuojBD

Microsoft Research PhD Scholarship

The PhD Scholarship Programme recognises and supports exceptional students who show the potential to make an outstanding contribution to science and computing. This programme supports PhD students in computing and those working at the intersection of computing and the sciences.

Only PhD supervisors should apply. If their project is selected, the supervisor has up to a year to find the best possible student for the project.

Eligibility Criteria:

We usually consider only one application per university department or per laboratory of a national research institution.

Only applications from institutions in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East will be considered; students may be of any nationality, however.

For an application to be considered, the proposed research must be closely related to the research carried out at Microsoft Research in Cambridge. These research topics are:

  • Computational Science
  • Computer-Mediated Living
  • Constraint Reasoning
  • Machine Learning and Perception
  • Online Services and Advertising
  • Programming Principles and Tools
  • Systems and Networking

Application Process:

Applications are on a competitive basis and we anticipate a high level of demand for scholarships (the average selection rate has been around 20 percent over the last six years).

Applications are accepted only through a student’s institution, such as from the PhD supervisor or a departmental secretary. We do not accept applications from students directly.

  • Applications should contain the following:
    • An online web form that includes contact details of supervisor(s) and possible reviewers.
      Ideally, one of the suggested reviewers should be from Microsoft Research. If no suitable Microsoft researcher can be identified, it may mean that the proposed research project is too far from our areas of interest.
    • A project proposal of maximum six (6) A4 pages in 10-point font, including references.
      Accepted formats: plain text or Microsoft Office Word only.
  • The research project proposal should address the following points:
    • Evidence that the research supervisor would be suitable to supervise a PhD student for the proposed research project.
      This may include a short list of the supervisor’s recent and relevant publications. Please consider including the URLs of the publications to make it easier for reviewers to find them.
    • Evidence that the department or laboratory offers a suitable environment for research in the proposed area.
    • Basis for the research (motivations and brief state-of-the-art, including key references).
    • Hypothesis under investigation and main aims.
    • Research strategy with significant milestones if identified.
    • Methods of research (for example, main techniques, experiments, and trials).
    • Details of any collaboration with other departments/research bodies.
    • Expected outcomes (for example, software tools).

Applications must be complete, submitted online, and received by the announced deadline to be considered. Proposals received after this deadline will not be considered.

  • Application deadline: 15 September 2010, 17:00 GMT

PhD Research Fellowship in Network and Distributed Systems for International Students, Norway

The Department of Informatics (IFI) is one of nine departments belonging to the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Oslo. IFI is Norway’s largest university department for general education and research in Computer Science and related topics. You can read more about the Department here:. The Department has near 800 students on bachelor level, near 300 master students, and over 200 PhD students. The totall staff of the Department is close to 250 employees, about 150 of these are full time scientific positions: about 60 Professors and Associate Professors.

The fellowship is for a period of up to 3 years.

Job Description:

The scholarship is in the framework of the Tidal News (Middleware Platform for Adaptive and Dependable Data Dissemination) project.

We are witnessing a dramatic increase in the use of data-centric distributed systems such as the dynamic Web, sensor networks, network-monitoring systems, and various publish-subscribe systems. The ubiquitous presence of such systems creates very large application networks that spread over large geographical areas and diverse intra- and inter-organizational domains. The visions of massive demand-driven data dissemination, intensive processing, and intelligent fusion in order to build dynamic knowledge bases that seemed infeasible just a few years ago are about to come true.

However, the realization of this potential demands adequate support from middleware that could be used to deploy and support such systems. At this time, both COTS middleware software and even state-of-art research middleware lack the technological foundations to cope with the enormous volume of data, constantly changing underlying network connectivity, and dynamic system organization. Typically, numerous information transmitters produce continuous data flows as well as massive unpredictable bursts of data at geographically dispersed locations. This data needs to be rapidly processed, routed, and classified by the degree of criticality, and intelligently fused. A large number of potentially mobile clients can issue multiple concurrent queries of varying urgency, priority, and precision requirements. In order to build a system that is capable of handling such a demanding situation, there is a clear need to develop new middleware technologies for scalable, mobility, adaptive, and reliable handling of these high-volume dynamic information flows.

We are seeking a student who is interested in designing, developing, and evaluating techniques that address these issues.

Requirements:

Applicants must have a degree in Computer Science, or in a related study, with excellent results. They must also be able to demonstrate interest in scientific research. The ideal candidate for the position will have strong background in distributed computing.

The purpose of the fellowship is research training leading to the successful completion of a PhD degree.

The fellowship requires admission to the research training programme at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. An approved plan for the research training, including a project outline, must be submitted no later than two months after taking up the position, and the admission must be approved within three months. For further information see:

A good command of English is required of all students attending the University of Oslo.

The application must include:

  • Application letter
  • Project description
  • CV (summarizing education, positions and academic work – scientific publications),
  • Copies of transcripts of records, and educational certificates
  • List of publications and academic work that the applicant swishes to be considered by the evaluation committee
  • Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number

Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University’s grading system.

Please remember that all documents should be in English or a Scandinavian language.

Closing date for applications: September 17, 2010