PhD Education

We provide the optoelectronic devices course for the Master in Advanced Physics (specialising in photonics) given at the Departments of Applied Physics and Optics of the University of Valencia. The course has been recognised as being of superior quality by the Spanish Ministery of Education.
 

Prospective Graduate Students

Are you thinking of joining our group to do exciting research? You must be asking yourself many questions.

Below we try to answer some of these questions, but please don't hesitate to contact Profs. Martínez Pastor or Sánchez Royo, or any other group member, for more information!.

• Where do the students that graduate with a Ph.D. from our group go?

Several of them go on to pursue Postdoctoral research in many fields (chemistry, electrical engineering, materials etc.), while others find jobs in academia (as teachers) and in companies.

• How is the work and research environment in our Optoelectronics Materials group?

Students work very hard during the course of their stay with our group, which can vary from 4 to 5 or more years. The schedule can involve long hours, but it can be that this cannot be avoided for several reasons! You get so involved in your work that you want to go on, you want to get that measurement that you're striving to obtain. And the rewards can be high!

• How often do I see my supervisor? How will I know if I am on the right path?

Students work very hard during the course of their stay with our group, which can vary from 4 to 5 or more years. The schedule can involve long hours, but it can be that this cannot be avoided for several reasons! You get so involved in your work that you want to go on, you want to get that measurement that you're striving to obtain. And the rewards can be high!We expect our students to be fairly 'self-running' and to take responsibility from early on, but they still see their supervisors every couple of weeks. For ad-hoc consultations, thesis supervisors have an open door policy and when away stay in touch through email/phone/Skype™.

• If I have a new idea, will I be able to pursue it?

Generally, after discussing it with supervisor, within reason, yes! This is possible because our group receives quite a lot of funding that allows some flexibility in the research.

• How is the work environment?

All of the students are located close to each other and conveniently close to their laboratories.

• What kind of students are you looking for?

We look for VERY reliable, motivated, creative and hard working students that also enjoy working collaboratively with other members of the group and frequently with other groups. Students with good academic results and/or that have already published journal papers (as first author) are strongly encouraged to apply to work with the group.

• If I am accepted in the UMDO group, what research subject will I be working on?

Our group currently works on several funded projects, and Profs. Martínez Pastor and Sánchez Royo are quite flexible regarding which specific project a new student takes on. During the first few months a new student has joined the group, he or she is assigned a relatively small (publishable) project to get started, which will include some or more of design, computer simulations, cleanroom fabrication and testing phases. After the successful completion of such a project, the student then works much more independently.

• What is the impact of the work of the UMDO group on science and technology?

Our group has more than 120 publications in peer reviewed journals (Appl. Phys. Lett, J. Materials Chemistry , Langmuir, J. Phys. Cond. Matter, Phys. Rev. Lett, ACS Nano, Phys. Rev. B, etc.) which are highly read by scientists in related fields of research. We also have well over 1000 citations in similar journals, which is an indicator that our work receives a significant attention in the scientific community. Furthermore we currently hold 4 patents.