Course summary

The course encompasses several different educational and societal objectives: Societal demand for multi-domain expertise to tackle the challenges posed by observing and modelling complex systems; The need to train postgraduate students with high levels of multidisciplinary fluency and team working skills; and, A demand for highly trained research scientists able to drive data analysis on feature-rich sets of data from diverse sources. The course has four primary objectives for the training it will provide students: To develop students’ expertise in the techniques used to study planets, from the Earth’s deepest past to the solar system planets and on to exoplanets; To give students a working knowledge of the structure of life, its essential physical-chemical requirements, and its impacts on planetary environments; To ensure students get essential practical experience in running a research project in a team; and, To build students’ capacity in modern data handling techniques and convey an awareness of the wide range of academic and industrial applications of these skills.