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Graduate Program

With a nominal finishing time of five years, the direct-entry PhD programme of the University of Toronto’s David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics focuses on training students to do first-class research.

In the first year, students are engaged in two separate research projects in two different research areas (one over the fall and winter terms, one over the summer months) through the two required research courses. An oral exam by a committee of three faculty members is held for each. First year students are supported entirely by university and departmental fellowships and teaching assistantships, and are not required to obtain support from a research supervisor. This allows them the flexibility to hunt for a suitable supervisor and an interesting thesis project after entering the programme.

The University of Toronto’s David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics is actively engaged in a wide range of observational and theoretical research on Solar System dynamics, stars, stellar systems, the interstellar medium, the Milky Way Galaxy, galaxies, quasars, clusters of galaxies, cosmology, and problems in General Relativity. The department has close ties with the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) and the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics which further enhance the opportunities for our students to interact with leading researchers.

For complete information: visit the Graduate Program page  on the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics website.

Meyer WIFIS_2294_1200px

Former PhD candidate Elliot Meyer working on a collimator, a component in the Wide Integral-Field Infrared Spectrograph (WIFIS). Credit: Dunlap Institute.

 

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Former graduate student Etsuko Mieda (r.) testing a grating for the OSIRIS spectrograph. Credit: Dunlap Institute.