Admission Requirements
There are no requirements
Description
This course introduces selected contemporary topics in physics as well as basic academic skills of modern research.
Students will be provided with a bird’s-eye view of contemporary challenges in the physics community through work sessions and guest lectures covering all the major fields in physics. There will be special emphasis on the topics that are central to LION (Leiden Institute of Physics) because LION most likely will play a part in the student’s foreseeable future.
In interactive work sessions, students will learn about academic skills: searching literature, reading papers, writing reports, and presenting posters. A group research project forms the core of this class. In groups of three, you choose a recent research question and apply the before mentioned research skills to discover current challenges related to your question. You will discuss the outcomes with your peers, and will present a poster with your findings at the end of the course.
Course objectives
After this class, you will be able to dive into a completely new research topic and summarize the key challenges in a written report and a poster presentation.
This involves that you are able to
Select a difficult contemporary topic in physics that interests the members of your group
Pose a physics related and unanswered question
Use the main tools for literature search to find papers related to a specialized topic
Digest difficult research papers efficiently so that you can gauge their quality and extract key information
Write a literary overview that recapitulates the main results of an extensive collection of research papers related to a specialized topic
Summarize the current key challenges for a specialized physics topic in a written report and a poster presentation
Transferable Skills
After this class, you will be able to
Work in a small group on summarizing key challenges in a specialized physics topic and distribute and manage the various tasks involved
Write a report on a very difficult, specialized topic
Create a poster that summarizes a topic clearly
Present a poster to your peers
Make an informed choice about a future research field you want to be involved in and have an overview of the possibilities within LION concerning that choice
Timetable
Schedule
For detailed information go to Timetable in Brightspace
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
See Brightspace
Assessment method
Handed in reports and poster session.
Reading list
Papers related to your research project.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Dr. Semonti Bhattacharyya Dr.ir. Paul Logman
Remarks
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.