Department of Applied Physics

Introductory Handbook

1

Introduktionshandbok för doktorander, examensarbetare och internships vid Tillämpad Fysik, AlbaNova, KTH, Stockholm.

Ansvarig chef: Peter Unsbo, prefekt

Version: 2013-05-07 v.3

Senast ändrad av: Linda Berglund


Contents

Contents

Contact Information

Leadership of the Department of Applied Physics

KTH Physics Administration at AlbaNova (5th floor)

Emergency Contact Information

Getting started – Quick Facts

Please contact your administrator to do the following

Non Swedish citizens – please contact Agneta Christiansson regarding

Practical Information

Working during off-hours

Useful links

Organization and Presentation of KTH

Structure and Organization of KTH

Structure and Organisation of Applied Physics

KTH Graphic profile

KTH as a Swedish Academic Institution

Principle of Open Access

Academic Titles in Sweden

Health services at KTH

Feelgood

KTH-hallen

Clubs at KTH

Graduate studies

Research and Study

Supervision and Advisors

Individual study program

Thesis and the Defense

Thesis

Preparation for the Defence of Thesis

Proof of Examination

Policies for Laboratory Safety and Proper Conduct

Emergency numbers

General rules of Conduct

Safety regulations

Safety and Usage rules of the AlbaNova Nano-Fab-Lab

List of contact persons

Declaration and signatures

Contact Information

Leadership of the Department of Applied Physics

Head of Department

Peter UnsboA2:101108-5537

Vice Head of Department

Fredrik LaurellA3:105108-5537

Director of Graduate studies

Michael FokineA3:104508-5537

Director of Undergraduate studies

Martin WiklundA2:100708-5537

Representative for the PhD students

Daniel

Applied PhysicsAdministrator

Technical Staff

Thomas FriskA2:

KTH Physics Administration at AlbaNova (5thfloor)

Salaries, employment conditions

Agneta ChristianssonC5:303508-5537 8101

Travel reports, advance of travel money, scholarships

Natalia OrellanaC5:303708-5537

Emergency Contact Information

Getting started – Quick Facts

Please contact your administrator to do the following

  • Get admission to PhD studies and terms of employment.(Note; there is a 6 months trial employment, with yearly updating of your employment forms.)
  • Get your name, office and telephone in the department list and on the Applied Physics home page
  • File a list of next of kin and your emergency contacts.NICE; ICE
  • Read the general safety regulations and sign a statement of understanding.
  • Tour in Alba Nova (restaurant, library, student reception, gym, shower and locker rooms).

Non Swedish citizens – please contact Agneta Christiansson regarding

  • Special letter concerning admission to graduate school.
  • Personal identification number for the Swedish State.
  • Work permit for the Swedish State.
  • Useful information about Stockholm.

Practical Information

  • Computer and internet: contact the responsible person for the network in your division or Administrator.
  • E-mail: please contactthe responsible person for the network at the division or Administrator.
  • Post Box: contact the reception on the 5th floor.
  • Key and Swipe card:contact Viktor Mannevik on the 5th floor next to the post boxes
  • KTH-hallen (Gym): Applied Physics sponsors the purchase of a membership card at the KTH-hallen. sponosoring 200 SEK/month.Please contact AgnetaChristiansson at

.

  • In the basement there is shower, small weight room and changing room. You need a key and swipe card access.
  • Representative for the PhD students isDaniel Larsson (BIOX)

Working during off-hours

For security reasons (burglary, theft, etc) all employees, PhD students, visiting researchers and students who occupy the premises of KTH between 19:00 – 08:00 and during Saturdays, Sundays and holidays,should carry an ID card which they may be required to show to security guards.During these off-hours you may see uniformed guards patrolling the building with dogs.Entrance to the building is possible at all hours, but during these off-hours entrance requires a swipe of your card andyour 4-digit security code.Swiping the card without the code is required at all hours for access the lab and the office areas.All suspicious activity should be immediately reported to security at the following telephone number 08-790 7700, or in case of emergency call SOS alarm at 112.

Useful links

Applied Physics

KTH

Student web

Research studies

Högskoleverket

KTH:s forskarstuderandesektion

AlbaNova

Check the web every now and then for updated e-mail addresses, courses, news and events!

Applied Physics seminars

Every second week there is an Applied Physics seminar. Students who attend more than 80% of the seminars will get study points, 1 point per year.

Internal

On the internal web page (password: aphys) you can get e-mail addresses to the whole group, look at pictures from previous events etc.

Organization and Presentation of KTH

Structure and Organization of KTH

KTH is organised in 11 schools:

  • School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE)
  • School for the Education of Architects
  • School of Biotechnology (BIO)
  • School of Computer Science and Communication (CSC)
  • School of Electrical Engineering (EES)
  • School of Energy and Environmental Technology (EMT)
  • School of Industrial Engineering and Management (ITM)
  • School of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
  • School of Chemical Science and Engineering (CHE)
  • School of Technology and Health (STH)
  • School of Engineering Sciences (SCI)

The Department of Applied Physics is a part of the School of Engineering Sciences (SCI).

In SCI there are seven departments:

  • Applied Physics
  • Aeronautics and Vehicle Engineering
  • Mathematics
  • Mechanics
  • Physics
  • Solid Mechanics
  • Theoretical Physics

Read more about theKTHorganisation at:

Structure and Organisation of Applied Physics

The head of the department (Prefekt) is Prof. Peter Unsbo. The director of graduate studies is Jerker Widengren and the director of undergraduate studies is Martin Wiklund.The department consists of six research divisions.All divisions take part in the teaching of courses.

Biomedical and X-ray PhysicsHead of division: Prof. Hans Hertz
Cell PhysicsHead of division: Prof. Hjalmar Brismar
Experimental Biological PhysicsHead of division: Prof. Jerker Widengren
Laser PhysicsHead of division: Prof. Fredrik Laurell
Nanostructure PhysicsHead of division: Prof. David Haviland
Quantum Electronics andQuantum OpticsHead of division: Prof. Gunnar Björk

See the homepage of the department for more information.

KTH Graphic profile

The impression of KTH as an institution is strengthened when we uniformly and consistently use a graphic profile for our letterhead, posters, and other public or privately distributed material presenting our work.KTH has a set of guidelines, which should be applied when using the graphic profile.Information on how the profile should be used, examples and templates can be found on the web at:

KTH as a Swedish Academic Institution

KTH is a university as well as a governmental body (“myndighet”).As such, KTH is foremost governed by laws in Sweden known as the “Högskolelagen” (Higher Education Act) and “Högskoleförordning” (Higher Education Charter).In addition to these regulations established by the Swedish State, KTH has its own internal rules and policies.Further information (in Swedish) can be found in the KTH handbook at

Principle of OpenAccess

Access to official records and documentsis governed by Sweden’s constitutional laws.These laws apply to KTH as a governmental body and they are commonly known as the principle of open access (“offentlighetsprincipen”).The spirit of this principle is to keep government open and transparent for citizens and residents by limiting the amount of information which can be kept secret.More information about this principle can be found on the Swedish Government home page at:

Academic Titles in Sweden

In the academic world there are many different titles.Here is a brief listof the various titles in Swedish with an approximate description of their meaning.

Adjungerad professor

A Professor who has his/her main occupation outside the university. This title is often given to a

senior person who may be working in a company, but has a part-time affiliation with a universitydepartment or center.

Adjunkt
An Adjunkt is an employee at a university or college who mainly has teaching responsibilities. An Adjunkt has an exam from graduate studies,as well as pedagogical experience.

Docent
Docent is an academic title, but it is no longer a formal position of employment. To become a Docent, a PhD or equivalent is required, as well as additional body of research work demonstrating scientific competencebeyond the PhD. In addition, teaching skills should be demonstrated.The Docent title is applied for and granted by a committee at the university, often after evaluation by external referees.

Forskarassistent
Forskarassistent is a teacher who also has research duty at the university.The position is foremost meant for younger researchers and is a starting point for an academic career, typically after a Post Doc period. A PhD is required to be employed as a forskarassistent.The Forskarassistent position has a time-limited employment contract (tidsbegränsadtjänst).By the end of a Forskarassistent position, one typically applies to become Docent.

Forskarstuderande/doktorand
PhDstudent who has been accepted for, and is actively studying fora PhD or Lic degree.

Lektor
A Lektor is a teacher at a university or college. To be employed as a Lektor, a PhDis required as well as pedagogical skills.The Lektor is typically applied for by candidates who have completed a Forskarassistent.The Lektor position is an open-tenured employment contract (tillsvidaretjänst).

Prefekt
The Prefekt is the head of the department and can be either a Lektor or a Professor.

Professor
The Professor title is the highest ranking academic title for teaching and research at the University.Professorships are granted in a certain subject area.Professorships can be applied for by external candidates in response to a call for applications, or they can be appointed by the internal promotion of a Lektor.The University has an evaluation committee for both forms of promotion.These committees seekthe advice of external referees in their deliberations.

Studierektor
The Studierektor (director of studies) works with pedagogical, administrative and economic questions relating to education in the department.At the Department of Applied Physics there is one Studierektor for doctoral studies and one for undergraduate studies.

Web-based glossary
A more complete glossary of Swedish academic terms and their English translation can be found at Högskoleverket’s (hsv) web page:

See also a general glossary at:

Health services at KTH

Feelgood

KTH has an agreement for occupational health services with Feelgood.The closest Feelgood office to AlbaNova isFeelgood Östermalmshälsan, about 15 minutes walk from AlbaNova.You have to contact Feelgood yourself and ask for an appointment. Please note that occupational health services only deal with health problems related to work.General health issues should be dealt with at your local clinic.

Address:

Feelgood Östermalmshälsan, Grev Turegatan 34,Stockholm

Phone:

08-676 8226

If you have questions regarding the agreement, please contact thepersonnel consultant Lotta Gustavsson

Phone: 08-790 9106
E-mail:

KTH-hallen

The department sponsors a workout card at KTH-hallen at Brinellvägen 38. The card may be bought with a substantial discount for 200 SEK/month. Please contact Agneta Christiansson: .

Read more about KTH-hallen on:

Clubs at KTH

KTH has various clubs which you can join.Some examples are:

Name / Homepage
KTH-IF Joggingsektionen /
KTH Konstförening (Art) /
KTH Motor- och teknikklubb /
Tekniska Högskolans flygklubb /
KTH Fotoförening Knepp /
SEKO (Labor Union) /

For more clubs, please check KTH’s homepage or Stacken

Doctoral studies

Research and Study

When you begin your studies, you must declare a subject area of study for your PhD.In the Doctoral Program in Physics there are two such subject areas: Physics and Biological Physics.

The subject study plans can be downloaded from the Doctoral program webpages.

Research

For somePhD students there is already a well defined task or an on-going project which the PhD student can begin immediately with.Other PhD students have a more open problem, with more freedom to choose the exact content of their research.In both casesa good way to start doctoral studies is to readreview articles, recent and classic papers or other literature thatdeals with the chosen area. Your supervisor should be able to help you to find suitable literature.The references in the literature often give new views to other literature.It often takes a quite a while to learn a particular area of research.It is important that you continuously discuss the direction of your studies and your ideas with your supervisors.

Courses

A Licentiatedegree in Physics or Biological Physics requires 30 course credits while a PhD degree require 60 credits.For information on course requirements, see the program webpages.

Doctoral level courses(3rd cycle) usually have a different composition than the undergraduate courses (2nd cycle).For example, assignments involving construction of apparatus, special mini-project assignments, study and review of literature, and in some cases actively participating in research seminars, can be considered for course credit.The number of lectures and laboratories are few in comparison with undergraduate courses and the literature and lectures arealmost exclusively in English.For graduate courses given at Applied Physics, see:

Seminars

Seminarsare important in the doctoral education process. The PhD student is expected to actively participate and arrange seminars where doctoral students, teachers and other researchers meet to discuss new methods,observations, literature and other problems that may arise.In the seminar, the PhD students present their work, receive criticism and open their work for discussion with other colleagues.Seminars make it possible for the PhD student to present a chapter, part of the thesis or an article for review and discussion.In the seminar, thePhD student gets important training in presentation.

In the Department of Applied Physics, the goal is that all PhD students present one or two seminars per year.The PhD student decides, together with the supervisor, who will be invited to the seminar.It is desirable that colleagues in other sections of the department are invited to increase interaction and open the possibilities to expand the on-going research. If a seminar topic is expected to be of interest to a broader audience, it should preferably be presented as part of the regular seminar program at Applied Physics or AlbaNova.

Publications and conferences

The most important way to present results is through publications in journals or in conference proceedings.An important part of PhD training is to refine your ideas by writing them down and continually editing your text.It is important to summarize the ideas you have acquired in your research of the literature to organize and create an overview of other work.Internal reports and draft chapters of a thesis can serve this purpose.When you publish a paper you also receive reviews of the work by anonymous reviewers appointed by the journal editor.Your supervisor will be able to suggest suitable journals or conferences for presentation of your results. It can be helpful to visit a conference in the early stages of the work to get an idea of how this process works.

When publishing original scientific contributions it is important to clarify who participated in the work.Typically anyone who made a significant contribution to the work is a co-author in the publication, and the order of authors in the list reveals their relative contribution to the work, with the largest contribution first.Frequently the most senior or principle supervisor is listed last in the list.Many students work in teams, and in that case it is common that several PhD students use the same publications in his/her thesis.A student should have at least one first-author publication in his/her PhD thesis. See the subject study plans for detailed requirements.

Departmentalduties

A common departmental duty of PhD students is teaching in undergraduate educationwithin the department. The work involves teachinglaboratory exercises, checking home lessons, running problem-solving sessions, and grading exams.Other possible work is to develop course material, course administration or have the responsibility for some function at the department.Please contact Director of Undergraduate studies Martin Viklund for more information.

Research ethics

It is important to have high ethical standards as a researcherand PhD student. Honesty is at the core of the scientific enterprise which his grounded in a search for Truth.It is not acceptable to ‘dress’ or distort research material, or to steal other people’s material and publish it as your own.The Swedish State has a policy document for research ethics, (SOU 1999:4) and there is national review board, which investigates cases of reported unethical activity in research.

For more information (in Swedish):

PhD student Organization

At KTH there is a special organization for PhD students, Doktorandsektionen.On the web at can get information about the organization and sign up to an e-mail list to get information.

The Applied Physics department has its own council for PhD students, and a student representative sits on the leadership committee (Board) of the Department. For current information about the representative and the Board see:

Supervision and Supervisors

Every PhD student musthave at least twosupervisors, with one appointed as the principal supervisor.The principal supervisorswill have the overall responsibility for guiding the doctoral education of the student.The supervisorsshould support and monitor the PhD student’sresearch and thesis work.It is critical that the PhD student and the supervisors have a working professional relationship with each other, have regular meetings, and that both are interested in the scientific problem under study.If a student has problems with his/her studies, the student should go first to thesupervisor(s) and secondly to the Director of the Doctoral program.

The PhD student has the right to supervision during the period of time that would normally correspond to that required to achieve 240academic credits.

Individual study plan

Every PhD student is required to have an Individual Study Plan, which describes the individual doctoral education of the student. The Individual Study Plan also serves as a legal contract between the PhD student and KTH. This document is prepared and submitted in combination with the application to doctoral studies, with annual revisions and resubmission.The PhD student and the principal supervisors work together to prepare this document, which is signed by both the PhD student and main supervisor.The individual study plan must comply with the study plan of the subject (Physics or Biological Physics), including updated reports on progress and updated planningfor future work and course studies. The form to be usedand guidelines for handling the individual study plan can be found on the Doctoral program webpages: