The objectives of the course is to give the PhD-students good knowledge and understanding of new developments in plant physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Plant processes are taught in molecular detail with emphasis on the molecular mechanisms for plant response to environmental and developmental stimuli. Selected topics are treated in depth.
The course is taught over 6 weeks (March - May) with 4 lectures per week + in selected weeks extra talks with lunch on other days. Exact dates TBA. The students prepare an individual essay (in English) at the end of the course. The topic of the essay is chosen by each student in collaboration with the teacher. The lectures are given by specialists from departments across Copenhagen University with additional external/international speakers.

Examples of topics:
*Transport across cell membranes
*Photosynthesis and its regulation
*Light signalling and plant development
*Climate change and plant health
*Cell walls: evolution, biosynthesis and applications
*Biosynthesis and function of secondary plant products
*Genomic gene clusters in chemical defence
*Evolutionary Agroecology
*Starch synthesis
*Molecular biology of plant pathogen interactions
*Nutrient (phosphate) signalling
*Ethics of plant biotechnology

Plant science and plant molecular science, from fundamental plant biology to translational agriculture and the science of plant based foods.

The purpose of the course is to raise awareness and increase the understanding of the plant science activities that are taking place in the Copenhagen Plant Science Center (CPSC) and with their partners, among the PhD-students working in the departments affiliated with the CPSC or in other Danish institutions.  An additional aim is therefore to provide PhD students with a broad network in Danish plant science to support their future careers and train their confidence in discussing plant science orally and in writing, interacting with plant scientists from other disciplines etc.
The main part of the course is a lecture series, where scientists from departments across the CPSC and a few invited international speakers give lectures on their topic in plant science.  

Lectures, reading, group discussions, presentations in class and interactions with speakers.

All lecturers will support the scientific discussions, and the main teacher (course responsible) will support the group work and discussions and presentations in class.
Student preparation involves reading the provided literature, as well as focused literature searches within own field to identify topics for review paper. Also preparation of short presentations to enable discussions of proposed outlines for their review papers with their peers and the main teacher.
In class, the PhD students will work in groups to discuss their individual ideas for their own review and structure and prepare a brief presentation for the whole class to discuss the ideas. Furthermore, in sessions during the course, we will discuss the contents of the talks and the relation between different disciplines etc.
Finally, for the invited speaker talks, there will be networking events where the group of PhD-students will interact with the speaker, and beforehand work together to come up with 4-5 questions to ask the speaker at this event.

There will be at least one speaker from each CPSC department that currently counts the following departments at University of Copenhagen:
Dpt. of Plant and Environment Sciences,
Dpt. of Biology,
Dpt. of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management,
Dpt. of Food Science,
The Globe Institute (part of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences)

In addition there will be 2-3 invited talks by leading international scientists.