Zoology

Department of Zoology

PhD program in Zoology

The program is opened to students who finished the graduate study (master, MSc., mgr.) in biology and wish to continue their professional career in zoology. The participants are instructed in conceptual, methodical and technical issues of particular disciplines of zoology and trained in practical invesigation of particular scientific problems. The PhD study is centered with the PhD project which concept and actual performance is largerly subjected to student´s personal initiative and skills.
A broad spectrum of problems in animal systematics, phylogenetics, ecology and behavioral biology can be studied typically with a routine application of various modern methods and approaches (molecular phylogenetics and phylogeography, histochemical analyses, experimental morphology and evo-devo, quantiative behavioral analyses, neuroethology, acoustic biology etc.) combined with extensive field investigation, comparative studies and laboratory analyses. Almost all major groups of animals are covered, typically Acarina, Aranea, Psedoscorpionea, Mollusca, Heteroptera, Coleoptera, Diptera and several other groups of insects (including fossils) and all major clades of vertebrates (including fossils) as well. For current examples consult a list of the past and recent projects undertaken in frame of the PhD Program in Zoology (at the web page of the Programe: https://www.natur.cuni.cz/biologie-en/zoology).

The Program is executed by the Advisory Board (Oborová rada) chaired by the chief of the Program (currently Prof.Dr. Ivan Horáček) who is responsible for all particular decisions and conclusions of the Board. The Advisory Board and its chaiperson are appointed by the Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Charles University in Prague. The Program is administrated at the office of dean by Mrs. Magdalena Čuříková.

1. Applications

The application must follow the general rules for application to PhD Study at Charles University and must include all the prescribed items.
The following items of the application documents are particularly important for the Advisory Board and should be presented also in an electronic form: (a) a professional CV with a detailed information on previous academic education and research experiences (the topics studied, publications etc.), (b) a detailed description of the proposed PhD project, and (c) a formal letter of agreement by its supervisor.

The description of PhD project should include: (i) title of the project, (ii) your name and affiliation, (iii) name of the supervisor(s), (iv) a brief contextual setting of the problem (current state of knowledge), (v) characteristics of the particular problems to be investigated, concepts and methods to be applied, (vi) time schedule of the investigations and expected outputs, (vii) references regarding the essential publications related to the proposed project. It is greatly recommendable to consult your PhD project with the supervisor prior to effecting the application.
The supervisor is an academic person responsible for scientific training of the applicant and also for technical background of the project, its funding and integration in research activity of the host institute. The supervisor(s) should be an experienced scientist in the field in which your PhD project is exposed. You can have two or more supervisors, eventually, in any case, at least one of them should be a member of the Department of Zoology at Charles University (it is recommended to choose a potential supervisor from the list of internal and external teachers of the Department of Zoology). Once you have found a potential supervisor (or supervisors) that interest you, you should make contact with them to discuss about the possibility of doing a graduate degree under their supervision and precise the theme of your PhD project. This is a critically important step because your application has very little chance of success without the support of a potential supervisor.
Final step prior to accepting your project is the entrance examination at ad hoc committee established by the dean of Faculty of Natural Science and Advisory Board. Personal presence of the applicant is necessary. The index criteria inspected by the Committee are (i) scientific relevance of the project, (ii) its methodical and technical coverage, and (iii) personal qualities of the applicant. It is expected that applicant presents at that occasion also his/her Master or Diploma thesis and other materials (publications etc.) illustrating his/her academic qualities.

2. Beginning of the Study

As soon as aftter a student has been accepted, the student's Program of Study, which includes information about course work to be taken, language requirement if any, the detailed description of the research project and its time schedule, will be done. The Program of Study and any changes thereto must be approved by the student's supervisor, the Advisory Board of PhD study in Zoology and forwarded to the office of dean of Faculty of Natural Sciences, Charles University, where it is deposited as an official part of the student´s registration documents. Any changes in the Program must be consulted in advance with the supervisor and aproved by the Advisory Board.

The PhD students are obliged to provide annual progress reports summarizing current achivements in their PhD Study (examens, state of the matter with their research project, publications and conference presentations, teaching practice) to the Advisory Board and ensure the completness of these informations in the electronic database of PhD study at http://dso.orgchem.cz. The most essential part of these informations are references of the publications and conference presentations resulting of the PhD project.

3. Conditions of the study

(i) The essential condition of the PhD study is active work on the PhD project and preparing of the PhD thesis. Progress in these respects is annually controlled by supervisor and aproved by the Advisory Board.
(ii) PhD students take an active role in scientific life of the host institute (Department of Zoology as a rule), attend seminars and meetings of particular teams.
(iii) A PhD student introduces his/her project at the seminary meeting of the Department not later that at the thrird semesters of a study.
(iv) At least one conference contribution and one publication in an international journal is expected within first three years of a study.
(v) A detailed summary of the results achiven in the project should be communicated at the PhD Conference in Zoology at the third year of a study at the latest. The PhD Conference takes place annually in winter months.
(vi) A participation at teaching (excursions, practical works, seminary) is appreciated.
(vii) A study stay abroad is also appreciated, its program and schedule must be aproved by the supervisor, of course.

Duration of the study is standardly 3 years for the internal program, and it can be prolonged by one year if the student successully passed all courses and the State Examination. The external study is limited for 8 years. Beginning of the study is at the day of registration, end of the study is at day of defence of the thesis. The latest term for presentation of thesis is 7 years and 6 months since the beginning of the study.

4. Graduation

The following are the prerequisites for graduation at the PhD Study: (a) completing all the items prescribed by the Program of Study, (b) passing of the State Doctoral Examination, (c) publication of the results (or at least part of them) in a scientific journal, and (d) succcefull defence of the PhD thesis.

State Doctoral Examination
At any time after passing the particular examens specified by the Program of Study by the Advisory Committee, normally within the first three years after commencement of the program but in no case later than one year prior to expected graduation, the student must take a formal State PhD Examination. The candidate must present a formal application to the Examination at the Office of dean. The examination committee (with five members as a rule) is officially appointed by dean of Faculty of Natural Sciences, in respect to recommendation by the chair of the Advisory Board.
The purpose of the Examination is to evaluate the student's potential as a scientist. The Examination is opened to public and is of a form of an academic disputation with particular emphasizes to (i) conceptual issues of the PhD project, (ii) conceptual and methodological extensions of its topic, and (iii) zoological specificities of the higher taxa which the project concerns. Evaluation will be based on the student's ability to answer questions and participate in discussions in disciplines relevant to the field of research and the result is expressed in terms "passed" or "not passed". In the latter case one repair term is provided.

PhD thesis
The PhD disseration thesis should have a form of a complex scientific work completing original and published results achieven by the student or the respective results prepared for print and published in form of a monograph. It can be presented as a manuscript of a complet of at least three published papers. The thesis must have an introduction and a concluding chapter which integrates the outputs of particular papers into the common framework of the PhD project and males obvious which are the actual contribution of the project to the current state of knowledge. The thesis can be presented in Czech or English or after consultation with the Advisory Board in other language. The thesis must include at least one paper published in a journal with impact factor (ISI covered periodicals). In a case of multiauthored paper, statements from particular authors on the student´s contribution is expected. Simultaneously with the thesis the student presents 25 copies of an autoreferate in English (8 to 12 pp. as a rule) with a brief summary of results, enumeration of major achievements, list of publications by the student a his/her brief professional CV. Both the thesis and autoreferate are presented to the office of dean.

Publications
Ultimate condition of graduation in PhD program is at least one conference presentation and at least one publication in a journal with impact factor. Exceptionally, the Advisory Board can accept a printed monograph instead of the latter.

Defence of the thesis
The terminal step of graduation is defence of the thesis. The defence takes place at an open assembly of the Advisory Board, ad hoc committee appointed by the Dean of Faculty of Natural Scences, reviewers, supervisor(s) and guests. The thesis is reviewed by two specialist in the field appointed by the ad hoc committe and Advisory Board, the written reviews are available to the student and members of the committee and Advisory Board prior the term of defence. The act of defence includes (i) introducing of the candidate by the chairman of ad hoc committee, (ii) a brief report on course of PhD study by the supervisor, (iii) oral presentation of the project and its major achievements by the candidate (ca 20 min), (iv) reading reviews and disputation of a candidate with reviewers, (v) disputation with members of ad hoc committee and an open discussion, (vi) a closed meeting of the committee and reviewers, and (vii) declaration of the result at an open concluding assembly.

Subject-area Board

The subject-area board is available in Czech (Oborová rada). The Chairman is highlighted.