About the Graduate School

The Department of Geography at the University of Zurich (GIUZ) is one of Europe's leading research centres in Geography and Earth System Science, excelling in all major areas of geographical research. We collaborate with many partner institutions and PhD candidates at the Graduate School carry out inter- and transdisciplinary research across a wide range of social, computational and natural science topics and in study areas across the globe.

The Graduate School provides a structured study program for all PhD candidates, has the following objectives:

• to expose PhD candidates to work across the breadth of geography;
• to encourage the development of skills in assessing and commenting on a broad range of geographical research;
• to provide opportunities for networking throughout the study period;
• to improve writing skills, particularly with respect to targeted scientific writing for conferences, journals and dissertations;
• to provide PhD candidates with mechanisms to develop key transferable skills;
• to make PhD candidates aware of the possibilities for their future careers, and to equip them with a set of skills for academic and non-academic routes; and
• provide opportunities for supervisors to develop their supervisory skills.

We have put together some films introducing the Graduate School, and allowing some former members to tell about life in Zurich.

The Graduate School is managed by a small team who are your first point of contact for all questions related to PhD studies at the Graduate School in Geography and Earth System Science. Please browse these web pages before sending us questions - many of them will be answered here. Note that the Graduate School is not responsible for new PhD positions and does not provide any funding for PhD candidates.

Director: Prof. Dr. Ross Purves
Coordinator:  Dr Isabelle Gärtner-Roer
Administrative support:  Karin Klein

The Advisory Board provides input on all matters relating to the curriculum and running of the Graduate School. This board consists of the Graduate School Director and Coordinator, toegther with one professor and one PhD student from each of the four thematics areas within the Department of Geography. The Advisory Board meets at least once per semester. PhD candidates can contact their representatives to bring up topics in Advisory Board meetings.

Current Advisory Board members are (in alphabetic order):

Prof. Norman Backhaus, Human Geography

Prof. Sara Fabrikant, Geographic Information Science

Prof. Andreas Vieli, Physical Geography

Andreas Henz, Physical Geography

Donatella Zingaro, Geographic Information Science

Mary Ann George, Remote Sensing Laboratories

Chitrangada Choudhury, Human Geography