UCL Astronomy Group:
Some Notes for New PhD students

NEW ENTRY, 2005:

Welcome to all our new postgraduates in UCL's "Group A" (Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Atmospheric Physics). These notes are to provide some basic introductory information, so you at least have some idea of what sort of (non-academic) questions to ask!

In 2005, the academic year starts on Monday, September 26; most of the first week is a settling-in period for new undergraduates. For administrative convenience, your nominal start date is October 1 2005. That's a Saturday, so in practice we expect to see you at UCL on Monday, October 3. You should arrange with your supervisor a time and place for a first meeting; there will also be a general "welcome session" on Monday afternoon (time and place to be advised). This year's postgraduate intake includes:

	Asier Arumburu	(supervisor: Jeremy Yates)
	Keith Biner	(Sarah Bridle)
	Simon Hodges	(Raman Prinja)
	Angeliki Kiakotou	(Ofer Lahav)
	Iraklis Konstantopolous	(Linda Smith)
	Tommi Koskinen	(Alan Aylward)
	McKenzie Lystrup	(Steve Miller)
	William Nicholson	(Alan Aylward)
	Julia Roberts	(Jonathan Rawlings+Serena Viti)
	Jiayu Tang	(Jochen Weller)

Depending on how well building works progress, you will be joining the group just after (or possibly just before!) it relocates to new premises, in UCL's Katherine Lonsdale Building; some of the following notes are subject to change in consequence. (All the 'A' numbered rooms mentioned below are on the top floor of the Physics building.)

In general, your supervisor is your first port of call – don't hesitate to ask her/him how to do something, or how to access some resource. Also, one-off, first-day things like "where do I get my grant", "where do I sit", "where do i get an id card" aren't covered, as the system and/or your supervisor should answer those questions more reliably than this page can.

These notes are therefore intended simply to cover "obvious" things that might otherwise get overlooked - not to be comprehensive. If there are things missing that you think could usefully be included, please let Ian Howarth know. (Thanks to Adam Burnley, Chris Lintott, and Sarah Kendrew for suggestions.)

An important source of additional information is Professor Storey's Information for Postgraduate Students.

Finally – just to be sure that someone, somewhere, tells you this explicitly – don't think a PhD in astrophysics is a guarantee of a subsequent job in astronomy. Perhaps 15-20% of PhDs are still in the business ten years after graduating (although, of course, virtually 100% of astronomers have a PhD; that is, it's a necessary, though not sufficient, condition...).

General Administrative Things

• What's going on in the Group? There's a schedule of regular events, some of which are mandatory. Once you've got an email account, you will get the "This week in Group A" mailings. At the time of writing (mid 2005), events include

  Monday – seminars (first two terms, mandatory; A1, top floor, 16:00-17:00, with coffee in A17 at 15:30 and a "speaker's lunch" beforehand)

  Tuesday – APEX: Planetary Sciences Journal Club (Garwood Lecture Theatre, Earth Sciences Dept., 12:00, normally weekly)

  Tuesday – cosmology discussion group (13:00; locations as notified, non-cosmologist welcome!)

  Wednesday – Journal Club (second two terms, mandatory; 12:00, currently D103)

  Thursday – coffee, with informal 10-minute science talk (A17, 11:00)

  Thursday – 'Astro-ph pint' takes place at 17:30 in the Housman Room. People bring along an abstract or two from the astro-ph preprint server for informal discussion over a drink.

  Friday – coffee (A17, 11:00)

   
• I need a pencil/paper. Stationery is available in the Departmental Office (by the entrance near the Union). Just pop in and ask one of the secretaries (and let them know who you are the first time you call in). Items not in stock (e.g., staplers) can be ordered.
   
• What's this stuff about transferrable skills training? Well, something that's mandatory for PPARC-supported students (and recommended for all others). There's College info available, as well as points scores for activities associated with our Dept.
   
• I want to send/collect mail. Boxes for outgoing mail are in the Departmental Office. There are separate boxes for external mail (i.e., stuff that goes out to the Royal Mail) and internal mail (i.e., internal to UCL; there are special internal envelopes for this, too). Items for members of the Department should be left in the pigeon-holes just outside the Office, which is also where you should collect your mail.

  (Academic staff have individual pigeon-holes arranged alphabetically. Many support staff also have individual pigeon-holes, which are located towards the bottom right of the pigeon-hole panel. Postgrads and postdocs have to share the alphabetical slots along the bottom of the panel.)

  Large deliveries generally go to PACC stores, in the basement. Tim Phillips (who operates the stores) will leave a note in your pigeon-hole if something comes in for you.
   

• Faxes?. The Office has the main fax machine. Incoming faxes will go in your pigeon-hole. (A second, smaller, machine is in A22; not enabled for outgoing international calls.)
   
• I need funding for...travel, computer, booze... See your supervisor. For conferences and meetings, there may be funding available from the Graduate School and the Department (see the Information for Postgraduate Students for further details); for observing trips, PPARC (not PATT) should normally pay.
   
• I want to do some demonstrating/marking. There are opportunities to make a few bob by marking undergraduate problem sheets (you'll get model answers and a marking scheme!) or by helping out with maths problem classes or in the undegraduate teaching labs. See the undergraduate tutor, your supervisor, and/or the academic staff responsible for the course of interest.
   
• Photocopying?. The Departmental photocopiers are on the ground floor (as you come in from the Union entrance, turn left instead of turning right into the corridor). They work with a card that you need to insert; these are available from PACC stores, in the basement. (You'll need your ID card first time you turn up.) These machines have autofeeders, and will double-side, collate, staple, etc.
  If you only want to do a quick sheet or two, there's a desktop photocopier in A22. Really large-scale stuff should go to UCL reprographics (printing is cheaper and faster than photocopying).
   
• Everything is a complete disaster. Talk to your supervisor/second supervisor. If that's difficult or inappropriate, there's the Departmental postgraduate tutor, and central UCL student welfare services (including counsellors, for example). At the time of writing, Bob Barber is Astronomy student rep on the postgraduate staff-student consultative committee, and general (or specific) issues can be channeled through him.
   

Computer Things

You should get signed up for a computer account at once (better yet, make sure your supervisor arranges it in advance). For historical reasons, the computer systems available for astronomers at UCL are often called "starlink", although formally that's now an anachronism. The computer systems are unix-like (usually running linux), not Microsoft boxes.

Once logged in, typing 'resources' (without the quotes, and in lower case) will give some guidance on things like printers, disk space, etc., but for beginnners a good rule of thumb is to ask your office-mates for things like "where is the nearest printer?", "how do i turn this on?", etc. It will be your turn to answer such questions next year!

Hardware faults should be reported (immediately) to John Deacon.

• Things you really should know: Every astronomer should know about, and use, the following "must-have" resources:

  ADS - find and read just about any paper ever published

  Simbad - find out basic data on, and published studies of, just about any object in the sky

  'astro-ph' (and UK mirror) - preprint server for submitted papers.

  Our own web pages, of course

  Astronomy Picture of the Day – okay, not really must-have, but a nice resource, mirrored locally.

  
   
• Email? The recommended mail utility is called 'pine'. Just type that in (note that linux/unix is case sensitive, so it has to be "pine", not "Pine" or "PINE") – most commands are pretty self-evident, and there's built-in help.
   
• What's X's email address? Without resorting to printed directories, there are two quick routes. For a local (UCL) astronomer, you can "finger" them (no, that's not what i mean!). For example, to find John Deacon's email address, just type "finger deacon" (without the quotes). More generally, the Starlink 'email' utility is handy – e.g., "email deacon" (it does cover local users, but won't be as up-to-date or complete as what you get from 'finger'). You can also get internal phone numbers in a similar manner – e.g., "phone deacon" (or "phone "jrd").
   
• How do I...? If you're new to linux/unix, there are lots of "how-to" resources on the web. You can always google, of course, but you might find the "documentation" section of the undergraduate Asteroids web site a useful starting point. Linux.org.uk is good, too.