Hale Aytaç: PhD in Mathematics at Porto University

My name is Hale Aytaç. I am from Turkey. I got my PhD in mathematics from the University of Porto (UP) in June, 2013. It was a joint PhD program between UP and the University of Coimbra and I completed a joint PhD with the University of Toulon (UTLN, France).

Porto is a charming city surrounded by natural and cultural beauties and the University of Porto is spreaded all over the city with three main campuses and many other institutes and centres. It is the second largest university in Portugal according to the number of students and is scientifically one of the most productive institutions in Portugal. One can easily notice that the students of UP are proud of their university and its traditions that contributes to the charm of the city.

The Department of Mathematics is located over the Douro river and provides the PhD students a friendly and performant environment. The Centre of Mathematics of the University of Porto (CMUP) consists of many research groups. It is very dynamic with regular seminars, organization of national and international events and collobrations between its members as well as researchers from all over the world. All of these activities help widening the vision of a doctorate student who is a part of the centre through the related research group.

I was a member of the Dynamical Systems research group during my PhD. Under the supervision of professors Jorge Milhazes Freitas (UP) and Sandro Vaienti (UTLN), I completed my doctoral thesis entitled “Extreme Values and Recurrence for Deterministic and Stochastic Dynamics”. Extreme Value Theory is widely used in many disciplines, such as finance and earth sciences, with applications to dynamical systems and our results are being used by physicists and meteorologists.

I highly recommend the University of Porto to students interested in attending a post-graduation program for its high quality education and the connections it provides. Currently, I work as an assistant professor at the Mathematics Department of the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.