Application Deadline 28 February

ICTP is now accepting applications from young physicists and mathematicians for the 2019-2020 class of the Postgraduate Diploma Programme. The one year course of study prepares talented students for PhD studies, as part of the Centre's efforts to promote advanced scientific research in developing countries. Each successful class of Postgraduate Diploma students helps bring this dream to life.

Students have gone on to PhD programmes all over the world, launching them into successful scientific careers. Two semesters of classes are followed by a research project and dissertation. Interested students can apply to study in one of five subject areas:

• High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Earth System Physics
• Mathematics
• Quantitative Life Sciences

The Quantitative Life Sciences course (QLS) is new this year, aimed at providing students with a quantitative and theoretical background that can allow them to access postgraduate programmes in a broad range of disciplines, including biophysics, quantitative biology, and neuroscience, theoretical systems ecology, economics, data science, and machine learning.

The QLS Diploma Programme will focus in two areas, says Antonio Celani, the QLS Diploma Coordinator. "One will be data science, including statistical learning, artificial intelligence, and machine learning," Celani explains. "The second area focuses more on biophysics, with courses in neuroscience and ecology and evolution." The courses are designed to give a core theoretical background for analyzing and modeling different phenomena in life sciences. "But all of these courses for the Diploma Progamme use the language of physics and math."

The deadline to apply is 28 February 2019, and you can apply online. The Programme is open to young (generally below 28 years of age) qualified graduates, with a degree equivilent to an MSc in physics, mathematics, or in a related field, and fluency in English. In each Postgraduate Diploma Programme subject area, scholarships and travel grants will be awarded to those 10 students selected from developing countries. There are no course fees.