Today I have been in Paris to conduct a PhD viva for a student working in the overlap area between nuclear physics & quantum computing.it was an early start for me, getting to St Pancras station for the 8am train to Paris. The journey went very smoothly and I arrived at orsay-ville station in the south of the city in time for lunch with the rest of the PhD jury. The style of a viva in France is quite different to that of the UK not least because the poor candidate has an audience.
The candidate (Jing Zhang) gave a presentation to the audience, including the examienrs ("jury") and then we took it in turns to ask questions. I, and one of the other examiners (the "referees") had to also give a kind of overal report orally, to match one that we had already submitted.
After questioning, the jury retired to decide its verdict. Fortunately, and as usual, we agreed that Mr Zhang deserved to pass the ordeal and become Dr Zhang. His family, who had been on a Zoom call watching the whole proceedings dropped out shortly before the verdict, unfortunately, so I hope Jing was able to call them soon afterwards. Congratulations Dr Zhang!
I took one picture of all the proceedings, which perhaps doesn't capture the new doctor in the best light, but you can see he is thinking seriously. It also shows the cute "THX" made of quantum gates
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