Welcome, Diploma Class of 2018

Fresh off the graduation of the Class of 2017, ICTP welcomed a new class of Diploma students on September 7, 2017, at 16:00 in the Budinich Lecture Hall. Photos of the ceremony can be found here.

The Diploma Class of 2018 class went through a rigorous selection process, and 40 students now begin a year of intense studies. The Postgraduate Diploma Programme is designed to prepare students from various educational backgrounds for PhD studies, filling in gaps and giving them a firm foundation to help make future studies a success. This year's students hail from 26 countries, namely Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Sudan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Since its inception in 1991, the Diploma Programme has seen 789 students complete the intense, year-long course of study in high energy physics, condensed matter physics, earth system physics and mathematics. Some 76% of alumni have gone on to earn PhDs, and more than half of those have returned to their home countries.

"I would really like to apply to a PhD program after this, but my main goal is to learn," says Gabriela Arias Mendez, an Earth Systems Physics student from Ecuador. Getting into a PhD program is the goal of many of the students, but it goes beyond that as well: "I want to gain more knowledge and get into a great university," says Youness Diouane, a Condensed Matter Physics student from Morocco, "and I want to meet many new people, to learn from them, from new cultures and new religions."

The ultimate goal for many, if not all of the students, is a career in research one way or another. "I want to be a researcher, I want to bring new ideas and discover new things," says Linda Medondjio, a Condensed Matter Physics student from Cameroon. "I want to understand the laws governing the world through physics."

More information about the Diploma Programme can be found here.