From Diploma to Doctorate

Five alumni of ICTP's Postgraduate Diploma Programme are the first to receive PhD degrees from the joint ICTP/SISSA PhD Programme in Physics and Mathematics.

The ceremony took place on Wednesday 21 October 2015.

The graduates, all of whom are from developing countries, began their educational journey as students in ICTP's intense, one-year Postgraduate Diploma Programme, where they proved their ability to pursue doctoral studies. There are currently another 21 students from 16 developing countries now enrolled in the joint PhD programme.

"The joint PhD programme between SISSA and ICTP has been working extremely well," said ICTP Director Fernando Quevedo, adding, "For more than 20 years, ICTP has been training top students from developing countries in a one-year Diploma Programme that aims to raise the level of the students to be able to compete for top PhD programmes in the world. The very best of the students are now enrolling in this new PhD programme. Both institutions benefit from a fresh new flow of excellent students from many different nationalities enriching their research projects and the academic life of both institutions."

"Four years ago SISSA and ICTP signed an agreement to establish a joint PhD program, one of several initiatives we developed to improve synergy between our two institutions," says Guido Martinelli, Director of SISSA. "It is also a way to create more opportunities for students from developing countries who would not have access  to a high-level scientific education like the one offered by two major international scientific institutions like ICTP and SISSA in their countries of origin.”

Today's graduates include:

• Thi Ngoc Loan Truong (Vietnam)
  PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics
• Marks Botirboevich Ruziboev (Uzbekistan)
  PhD in Applied Mathematics
• Pavel Silveira Diaz (Cuba)
  PhD in Geometry
• Cong Huy Pham (Vietnam)
  PhD in Condensed Matter Theory
• Victor Ivan Giraldo Rivera (Colombia)
  PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics