Department of Physics and Geology

Phd Training Program AA 2025 -2026

 

Seminars

21 January 2026 - Federico LUCCI (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro) - A tale of trondhjemite, migmatite and rifting: making the early continental crust

28 January 2026 - Ivan SUNYE PUCHOL (Sapienza Università di Roma) - Beyond eruptions: using tephra layers to reconstruct volcanic and paleoenvironmental histories

4 February 2026 - Flaviano BIANCHINI (Source International, Pisa) - The dark side of the energy transition

11 February 2026 - Nicoletta BURATTI (Total, Poe) - Biostratigraphy in the multienergies industry

25 February 2026 - Francesco PAVANO (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) - Exploring geomorphic and stratigraphic records to decode tectonic signals

4 March 2026 - Alessio CHECCONI (PXGEO, Bristol) - Taphonomic processes on the River Thames foreshore in Central London: geology meets archaeology through the lens of mudlarking

11 March 2026 - Chiara MONTEMAGNI (Università degli Studi di Firenze) - Structural geology and geochronology in the study of crustal deformation

18 March 2026 - Claudio DE LUCA (CNR-IREA, Napoli) - Satellite SAR Interferometry: Principles, techniques, and applications for monitoring ground and infrastructure deformation

Doctoral Courses

  • EARTH SYSTEM AND GLOBAL CHANGES*
    Dates: 18-28/05/2026
    Hours: 54 h
    Credits: 9 CFU
    SSD: GEOS-01/A, GEOS-01/B, GEOS-01/C, GEOS-02/A, GEOS-02/B, GEOS-02/C, GEOS-03/B
    Course schedule:
    o Section 1. GLOBAL CHANGES IN THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD (3 CFU)
    18/05/2026 - Earth System Science and Global Changes – Diego Perugini
    19/05/2026 - Global Changes in the Deep Time – Simonetta Cirilli
    20/05/2026 - Quaternary Global Changes – Marco Cherin
    o Section 2. NATURAL HAZARDS IN A CHANGING WORLD (3 CFU)
    21/05/2026 - Plate Tectonics and Global Changes – Massimiliano Barchi
    22/05/2026 - Natural and Anthropogenic Seismicity – Massimiliano Barchi
    25/05/2026 - Volcanic Hazard – Carlo Cardellini
    o Section 3. NATURAL RESOURCES IN A CHANGING WORLD (3 CFU)
    26/05/2026 - Knowing Groundwater in an Active and Changing Planet – Costanza Cambi
    27/05/2026 - Geomaterials for the Ecological Transition – Azzurra Zucchini
    28/05/2026 - Energy Solutions for a Changing World – Giorgio Minelli
    * Mandatory course for ESGC PhD students
    Contact: marco.cherin@unipg.it
  • INTRODUCTION TO ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CLIMATE AND COPERNICUS DATA STORE (CDS)
    Dr. Paolina Bongioannini Cerlini (University of Perugia)
    Dates: 26/01/2026 - 28/02/2026 (Monday and Friday, 15:00-17:00)
    Hours: 25 h
    Credits: 4 CFU
    SSD: GEOS-04/C, PHYS-05/B
    Syllabus: Introduction: The atmosphere continuum, atmospheric composition and phenomena, scale analysis, vertical structure of the atmosphere. Governing equations. Atmospheric equations of motion on spherical coordinates. Synoptic scale motions. Lorenz system: deterministic chaos. Thermodynamic charts. Hydrostatic equation. Geopotential. Climatic feedback and global warming. Energetics of moving air.
    Thermodynamics (dry and moist): Kinetic theory, First and Second law of Thermodynamics, Enthalpy, Hydrostatic balance, Buoyancy, Moisture variables, Tephigrams and SkewT-LogP diagrams, Potential and Virtual Temperature, Stability and soundings, Convection, Moist Adiabatic Lapse Rate.
    Radiation: Planck function, EM spectrum, Irradiance and flux density, Inverse square law,
    Stefan–Boltzmann law, Black-body spectra, Wien displacement law. Solar and terrestrial radiation, radiative equilibrium, RCE, Absorptivity/reflectivity/transmissivity, Scattering, emission, absorption, satellite IR spectroscopy, brightness temperatures. Energy Balance Models, greenhouse effect (1–2-layer models), radiative–convective equilibrium.
    Climate Change: Earth’s energy imbalance (Trenberth diagram), climate feedback, climate sensitivity, water-vapor feedback and Clausius–Clapeyron, ice–albedo, cloud feedback. Tropical equilibria. Oceans: structure, mixed layer, water masses, thermohaline circulation.
    Numerical Weather Prediction: GCMs (ECMWF-IFS); mesoscale models (WRF/ARPS). Test cases: Beltrami flow, symmetry, warm bubble, DelCity storm.
    Copernicus Data Store & ERA5: access and usage; climate variables; UHI; CDS toolbox: retrieval, plotting, climatology, anomalies, averaging, trends, geomaps; data formats (NetCDF, CSV, TXT).
    Contact: paolina.cerlini@unipg.it
  • MACHINE LEARNING FOR DATA ANALYSIS, AND IMAGE CLASSIFICATION IN THE EARTH SCIENCES
    Prof. Maurizio Petrelli (University of Perugia), Dr. Alessandro Mondini (CNR-IMATI)
    Dates: September 2026 (dates to be set)
    Hours: 18 h
    Credits: 3 CFU
    SSD: GEOS-01/B
    Syllabus: The course is designed and implemented to provide students with an overall understanding of machine & deep learning techniques as applied to data analysis within the domain of Earth Sciences. The focus will be on preparing and exploiting machine learning algorithms in Python to segment and classify structured datasets, including multi-source images acquired in different spectral bands. the course will encompass both theoretical principles and practical applications, ensuring participants gain insights in the extraction of information from data.
    Contact: maurizio.petrelli@unipg.it
  • GROUND PENETRATING RADAR IN GEOSCIENCES: PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS
    Dr. Maurizio Ercoli (University of Perugia)
    Dates: 13–15/05/2026
    Hours: 18 h
    Credits: 3 CFU
    SSD: GEOS-04/B
    Syllabus: The course will provide a theoretical introduction to the near-surface geophysical method known as GPR, with a particular focus on the geoscience applications, and will include practical activities (collection and analysis of experimental data).
    Course schedule: 2h - Introduction to geophysical methods; 2h - Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), theoretical principles; 2h - Equipment and data acquisition; 2h - Data analysis and processing; 4h - Conventional and advanced tools for data interpretation, examples of applications; 4h - Practical demonstration of data acquisition, processing and reporting.
    Contact: maurizio.ercoli@unipg.it
  • VIRTUAL 3D MODELING AND DRONE APPLICATIONS IN PALEONTOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES
    Teacher to be identified through contract assignment
    Dates: 24–26 March 2026
    Hours: 24 h
    Credits: 4 CFU
    SSD: GEOS-02/A
    Syllabus: The course will provide a comprehensive overview on the use of virtual 3D modeling and drone technology in paleontology and Earth sciences. Students will learn theoretical principles, practical field applications, and data processing techniques for creating 3D models and conducting scientific 3D analyses in geosciences. Practical activities will include data collection and analysis of experimental data.
    Course schedule: 4h – Theoretical introduction. 2h – Applications in paleontology and geology with specific case studies. 9h – Practical activities of data acquisition and reporting (3h for photogrammetry; 3h for 3D scanning; 3h for drone-based photogrammetry). 9h – Data analysis and processing (3h for photogrammetry; 3h for 3D scanning; 3h for drone-based photogrammetry).
    Contact: to be defined

Schools

INTERNATIONAL SHORT COURSE ON APPLICATION OF LASER ABLATION INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASS SPECTROMETRY TO EARTH SCIENCES
May 2026 (dates to be set)
3 CFU
Contact: maurizio.petrelli@unipg.it