Open lectures for PhD students and young scientists -- every year

The following lectures are primarily intended for PhD students and postdoctoral fellows.

Guests are welcome. Colleagues, practitioners, high school instructors, PhD student from other Countries, and hobbyists with personal or professional motivations may like to learn these things.

Time zone. All schedules refer to Central Eurpoean Time (paris/Berlin/Madrid/Rome). This is UT+1 in Winter, and UT+2 with daylight saving time. Beware that not all Countries switch at the same time.

Language. All lectures are in English, and all the learning material is in English as well.

Hybrid in-person and online lectures.
 • Online access (Zoom) is reserved to participants not based in Besançon and surroundings.
 • Local folks have to attend classes in person.
 • All classes are kindly hosted for free by Supmicrotech, 26 Chemin de l'Epitaphe, 25000 Besançon, France.

Restrictions. Sadly, new collaborations with some Countries are forbidden. The list, not disclosed here, is tiny. Residents in one of such Countries, or affiliated to a Company/University located there, are not allowed to attend class/online lectures. In case of doubt, a proof may be required.

Registration is required.
 • Local PhD students (Bourgogne Franche Comté), please register via ADUM, email me if you need help. The Doctoral School requires that you attend ≥80% of the lectures for the course to be validated.
 • Other PhD Students (elsewhere in France, and abroad), you probably care about the course to be validated by your Doctoral School. If so, (i) check with the Doctoral School about requirements, and (ii) use your university email address, it serves as a decent proof of ID. Then, do the same as guests, see below.
 • Guests, please email me at enrico [dot] rubiola [at] femto-st [dot] fr. Confirmation comes quite soon. A few days before the first lecture you have to provide a small amount of information about you, mainly for monitoring purposes, and you receive the web link.
Albeit everything is free of charge, minimal monitoring is important to me. Besides, registration implies some kind of motivation and commitment, at least you have some awareness of the contents, and you checked that the schedule matches your availability.

Time and Frequency, Instrumentation, and Metrology (3×7.5 hours)

Option A (recommended): The full package (Part 1, 2 and 3, 21.5 hours)

Take Part 1, 2 and 3 (lectures 1-15) to get the secrets of oscillators, together with the foundations of the science of measurement.

Option B: Oscillators, frequency stability and noise (Part 1-2, 15 hours)

Take Part 1 and 2 (lectures 1-10) if you need to know the secrets of stable and low-noise oscillators, how they can be measured, and the systems they belong to. These lectures derive from seminars given at the Tutorial Session of international conferences of time and frequency, and from invited seminars. This option is a must for all the PhD students and young research fellows working on a topic broadly related to time and frequency, including optics and astronomy.

Option C: Scientific instruments (Part 1 and 3, 15 hours)

Take Part 1 and 3 (lectures 1-5 and 11-15) if you are interested in precision measurements, in the subtle meaning of uncertainty, and in the nature of the measurement units we use in all domains of science. This option is a must for young experimentalists (PhD students and postdoctoral fellows) in engineering and physics. The first part is about experimental methods of general interest. The second part is on the new International System, of Units (SI), in force since May 20, 2019.

Registration is required. See above in this page

Most recent learning material

Schedule of the next or most recent lectures (Central European Time)

Preliminary program

The Scientific Publication (10 hours)

How to communicate scientific ideas in journals, conferences and books, how the mechanism underneath works, and how to target audience and publisher. This course is a must for PhD students of all disciplines, and falls in the category of "humanities." It is open to a broad audience, including young Colleagues, Master Students, and Guests.

Registration is required. See above in this page

Most recent learning material

Schedule of the next or most recent lectures (Central European Time)