Admission to doctoral studies

The programme includes three specialities with responsible institutes shown in parenthesis:

1. Physics (Institute of Physics)

2. Chemistry (Institute of Chemistry)

3. Space research and technology (Tartu Observatory)

See programme information

The programme includes five specialities with responsible institutes shown in parenthesis:

1. Computer Engineering (Institute of Technology)

2. Sustainable Energetics (Institute of Chemistry)

3. Environmental Technology (Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences)

4. Materials Science (Institute of Physics)

5. Molecular Biotechnology (Institute of Technology)

See programme information

II.5. Progress review

• Progress review is the assessment of the progress of the learner in doctoral studies in research and studies at the progress review meeting. During progress review, the completion of the doctoral programme and individual plan is assessed.

II.5.3. Documents required for progress review

• At least eight working days before the date of progress review, the learner in doctoral studies enters the documents required for progress review in the Study Information System.
• The progress review report and the period plan signed by the learner in doctoral studies and the supervisor(s) as well as additional materials required by the faculty’s progress review procedure must be submitted to the progress review committee. The individual plan must be submitted for the first progress review of the first year and thereafter if it needs to be changed.
• If, with the progress review report, the learner in doctoral studies applies for RPL or the recognition of academic and work experience obtained outside the university towards the completion of the doctoral programme under clause 30, the approval of the head of the specialisation of the doctoral programme must be obtained before submitting the progress review report. [effective as of 1 March 2024]

At the end of the first semester of the first year of study, the doctoral student:

1. has made an individual plan, inc. a preliminary publication plan, and a preliminary outline of the thesis data or how the data will be collected;
2. has made a realistic period plan for successful progress in the second semester of the first year of the studies;
3. and the supervisor have clarified their expectations of cooperation in an interview, using the expectations formulation worksheet. At the first progress review, the progress review commitee asks questions about the results of the interview.

At the end of the first year of study, the doctoral student:

1. demonstrates having started work on the doctoral thesis, e.g. has completed the first draft of at least one research article or monograph (at least 1/5 of the planned volume of the thesis), or has developed or selected a data collection methodology, collected the first data and decided on how to use them (article, utility model, etc);
2. has presented the results of his/her work orally at least once to a wider audience, e.g. at a doctoral seminar of the specialisation, a research colloquium, an extended doctoral seminar, a scientific conference, has actively participated in the seminars of the faculty;
3. as a junior research fellow, has fulfilled other contractual duties (not directly related to doctoral thesis) agreed in the individual plan during the progress review period;
4. in the programme "Engineering and Tecnology" specialisation "Materials Science", has completed the course "Introduction to Doctoral Studies in Science and Technology" by the end of the first year of study.

At the end of the second year of study, the doctoral student:

1. has presented the results of his/her work orally at least twice during the studies to a wider audience, e.g. at a doctoral seminar of the specialisation, a research colloquium, an extended doctoral seminar, a scientific conference, has actively participated in the seminars of the faculty;
2. has demonstrated progress in compiling the doctoral thesis, e.g. has submitted one research article qualifying for the defence of the doctoral thesis to a journal and started writing the second article or has completed at least 1/3 of the monograph and clarified the structure of the monograph.
3. has demonstrated progress with other activities of the module of research, development and creative activities, e.g. has passed on knowledge during studies through teaching, supervision of student theses and popularisation of their specialisation;
4. has demonstrated progress with the completion of the study module, e.g. has completed half of the courses developing professional and generic competences during the studies or has otherwise achieved the learning outcomes of the module;
5. as a junior research fellow, has fulfilled contractual duties agreed in the individual plan during the progress review period.

At the end of the third year of study, the doctoral student:

1. has presented the results of his/her work orally at least three times during the studies to a wider audience, e.g. at a doctoral seminar of the specialisation, a research colloquium, an extended doctoral seminar, a scientific conference, has actively participated in the seminars of the faculty;
2. has completed at least two relevant research articles qualifying for the defence of a doctoral thesis, one of which has been formally accepted for publication and the other has been submitted to a journal; alternatively has completed 3/4 of the monograph and submitted one relevant research article qualifying for the defence of a doctoral thesis to a journal.
3. has demonstrated progress with other activities of the module of research, development and creative activities, e.g. has passed on knowledge during studies through teaching, supervision of student theses and popularisation of their specialisation;
4. has demonstrated progress with the completion of the study module, e.g. has completed most of the courses developing professional and generic competences during the studies;
5. as a junior research fellow, has fulfilled contractual duties agreed in the individual plan during the progress review period.

At the end of the fourth year of study, the doctoral studies are assessed positively if the doctoral thesis manuscript has been completed in line with the requirements of the regulations and the compulsory activities of the modules of the doctoral programme have been completed.

This project focuses on developing nanostructured photocatalytic materials that are active under visible light to create antimicrobial surface coatings for reducing microbial transmission on frequently touched surfaces in healthcare facilities and public spaces. Photocatalytic antimicrobial action is driven by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which oxidize and decompose organic contaminants and microbial cell components. Current commercial photocatalytic coatings, predominantly based on TiO₂, require UVA illumination, limiting their usefulness indoors where visible light dominates. A key challenge in the field is producing visible‑light‑active photocatalysts that generate ROS as efficiently as UVA‑activated materials.
To address this gap, during this project several promising visible-light responsive photocatalysts with known antimicrobial properties will be synthesized and evaluated: WO₃, ZnIn₂S₄, ZnIn₂S₄/g‑C₃N₄, and ZnIn₂S₄/WO₃. These compounds will serve as the active components in coating formulations. Another important challenge is ensuring strong, durable adhesion of the coatings to different surfaces. Commercial acrylic paints and ethyl‑methacrylate polymer will be explored as matrix materials and to achieving uniform distribution of the synthesized photocatalysts within these matrices remains one of the central tasks of this project.
Overall, this project aims to close the technological gap that currently limits photocatalytic coatings to UVA‑dependent systems. By integrating material synthesis, surface engineering, and antimicrobial testing, it will establish a robust basis for practical, indoor‑applicable antimicrobial surfaces.

Please contact prof. Vambola Kisand ([email protected]). Co-supervisors are dr. Alexander Vanetsev, prof. Angela Ivask and prof. Wei Cao (University of Oulu). The study will be carried out in the Laboratory of X-Ray spectroscopy.

Engineering and Technology (Materials Science).

Optical cavities, particularly planar Fabry–Perot (metal–dielectric–mirror) resonators, are key platforms in molecular strong coupling, polaritonics, and quantum optics. By enabling hybridization of light with excitonic, plasmonic, and vibrational excitations, these systems provide access to the strong-coupling regime, where optical and energetic properties can be profoundly modified. Such cavity-mediated effects underpin emerging applications in polaritonic light sources, cavity-controlled energy transfer, and polaritonic chemistry, including reaction-rate engineering.
This project builds on our group’s established expertise in cavity optics, polariton physics, strong light–matter coupling, and DNA origami–based nanosystems. We will further develop a grayscale UV-lithography technique for the rapid, parallel fabrication of Fabry–Perot microresonators. The method enables high-throughput production of dye-doped cavities, increasing fabrication yield from a few devices per day to thousands, thereby substantially accelerating experimental studies.
The work will focus on improving fabrication accuracy and defect control, optimizing photoresist–emitter combinations (including quantum dots, molecular dyes, photosynthetic proteins, and DNA origami FRET systems), and extending the approach to hollow, variable-thickness cavities for liquid-phase measurements. Advanced Fourier-plane spectroscopy will be employed to characterize the resonators and evaluate their performance in optical and vibrational strong-coupling experiments, with emphasis on spectral modification and cavity-controlled energy-transfer processes. As a result of this doctoral project, at least three scientific publications are planned. The present doctoral project is associated with two PRG projects that commenced in 2026.

Please contact dr. Siim Pikker ([email protected]). Co-supervisors are dr. Veikko Linko and Arvi Freiberg. The study will be carried out in the Laboratory of Physics of Nanostructures.

Chemical and Physical Sciences (Physics).

Do anthropogenic aerosols affect Earth’s climate by acting as ice-seeding particles? Our recent work revealed that certain industrial aerosols seed ice, suggesting that an overlooked climate-forcing mechanism may exist. This project develops the first-ever global database of anthropogenic aerosol sources seeding ice and calculates the associated impact on Earth’s climate. For this, the work combines long-term satellite records, atmospheric dispersion modelling, and laboratory experiments. Aerosol dispersion modelling will allow to automatically identify ice‑seeding at 30 thousand industrial facilities.

The ice seeding at isolated localised industrial sites will be compared with ice seeding around megacities and larger industrial regions at climate-relevant scales: over multiple decades at spatial scales spanning hundreds-by-hundreds of kilometres. To quantify the climate impact by ice-seeding aerosols, we calculate it relative to the climate impact by aerosols serving as seeds for liquid clouds. By this, we address a major open question in climate science: are current climate predictions missing an important anthropogenic climate-forcing mechanism?

Please contact prof. Velle Toll ([email protected]). The study will be carried out in the Centre for Climate Research.

Chemical and Physical Sciences (Physics).

Quantum computation is a novel paradigm of computing which is capable of solving problems that remain intractable for conventional computing. In particular, quantum computers are able to efficiently simulate large quantum systems, a task beyond the reach of conventional computers, regardless of their scale. This is of great interest for quantum chemistry and materials science, which underlie chemical and pharmaceutical industries and development of new materials and technologies. While fault tolerant quantum computing is predicted to arrive earliest in a decade, near term quantum devices which involve a few hundred qubits are becoming a reality presently. The project focuses on simulation of quantum systems that are of interest in quantum chemistry and solid state physics using the paradigm of variational quantum algorithms, as well as fault tolerant quantum computation. Analysis, benchmarking, testing and development of the range of methods that are used for simulation and computation of electronic structure and energy surfaces need to be carried out in order to make progress in quantum simulation on near term quantum devices.

Please contact dr. Veiko Palge ([email protected]). Co-supervisor is dr. Juhan Matthias Kahk. The study will be carried out in the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Laboratory of X-Ray spectroscopy.

Chemical and Physical Sciences (Physics).

The first direct image of a supermassive black hole in 2019 has been one of the most impressive scientific achievements not only for the gravitational research community but also for the general public, appearing in newspapers and on TV news. Understanding the physics behind this image is crucial to gathering more information about our universe and the theories governing it.

The equations of gravity describe how matter curves spacetime and how particles move within it. When these equations fail to explain observations fully, we can question either our assumptions about matter or the theory of gravity. The absence of direct evidence for dark matter and energy in explaining cosmic dynamics, for example, motivates exploring theories beyond Einstein’s general relativity. These lead to different equations and, therefore, also different black hole solutions, which leave distinct imprints on accretion dynamics and photon trajectories. In this way, black holes serve as natural laboratories for testing gravitational theories through their observable images. However, using toy models to reduce the complexity of the problem may introduce degeneracies between the effects of spacetime geometry and accretion disk physics, potentially leading to misinterpretation of the results.

Establishing a solid foundation for rigorously testing general relativity and theories beyond that against the current and future black hole observations requires a deep understanding of how gravity influences all physical processes encoded in the image. The objective of this PhD project is to make systematic steps to assess the impact of theories beyond general relativity on (1) the geometry of spacetime as manifested in the “shadow” of the image, (2) the matter dynamics and the feasibility to develop semi-analytic models of the accretion disk, and (3) the potential signatures in the polarisation patterns of the observational data.

Please contact dr. Laur Järv (laur.jä[email protected]). Co-supervisor is dr. Mercè Guerrero Román. The study will be carried out in the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics.

Chemical and Physical Sciences (Physics).