Join us
Internship, visiting scholar, PhD, and postdoc opportunities
We are always looking for talented people to help with our research! See below for information on how to get involved.
NYU internships/visiting scholarships
We are offering short term visiting programs to come to NYU Shanghai and help with our research activities. This would involve coming to Shanghai, China typically for 3-6 months and doing a research project. Financial support is available for your trip (flight, accommodation, etc.), please contact us to see if you are eligible. During this time you will join the group at NYU and work on a project that is assigned to you. The kind of project that you do depends on your particular taste, there are projects that are completely theoretical (pen and paper work), more numerically based (coding), or even experimental. The intention would be to write a paper in this time, where you have the possibility of being a co-author. This may seem like a short time to write a paper, but with a little help, its usually possible (see our publication list).
For more specific information about life in Shanghai, see our page about setting up your visit here.
You may also like to check out our old page on internships at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo. Some of the information is outdated, but you may find it useful.
Postdoc opportunities
These are offered from time to time, mainly depending on availability of financial support. If you are interested, send an email!
PhD at NYU Shanghai
NYU Shanghai offers a PhD program for Physics. The application procedure is handled through NYU New York, where you select the “NYU Shanghai track”. As NYU Shanghai is part of NYU’s global network, you would obtain a PhD degree from NYU, and is no different to that obtained if you were in New York. For futher information I suggest that you look at the Physics PhD at NYU, you may see the following page for more information:
NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences page
NYU Shanghai graduate program page
Suggested timeline of PhD at NYU
As with most American PhD programs, there will be required coursework and a thesis component. Because NYU Shanghai does not currently offer graduate courses, you would perform that part at New York campus. This mean that you would spend the first 1.5-2 years in New York doing graduate courses, then after this move to Shanghai to do the research component. The core courses are done in the first year and then 6 elective courses must be taken over the next 3 years.
Generally when applying to NYU, and American universities in general, is that you may need to report GRE exam results when you apply. There are two GRE exams you need, the general and physics. You will need both, so this takes a bit of coordination before applying. If you are from a non-English speaking country, then you also require a TOEFL score. There are only a few times a year when you can take the test, and you need to have the results ready when you apply.
Deadline for NYU Shanghai track: mid-December
If you are interested in more information, then contact Tim and we can take it from there.
PhD at East China Normal University (ECNU)
A second option to join the group is through East China Normal University. Tim has a joint position at the State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy where the experimental lab is located. This means that you can join the group also by applying to the graduate school at ECNU. You can find information about this below:
While the page says that you require the HSK test (the Chinese language test), this can be exempted because you will be advised in English. In this case, you will instead require an IELTS or TOEFL accreditation.
Deadline for ECNU applications: June 15
IMPORTANT: ECNU will only take your application if you send PAPER COPIES as well as the online application. Make sure you make an application so that it arrives before June 15.
If you apply to ECNU, you should also apply for a scholarship which provides financial support. There are two main scholarship providers, the China Scholarship Council and the Shanghai Government Scholarship. The deadlines for these are usually around
If you are interested in more information, then contact Tim and we can take it from there.
