In the UK, the process of obtaining a PhD includes submitting a thesis and then passing a viva (an oral examination), where the thesis is defended. This is a private event, as opposed to many other European countries where the defence is public. In the UK, the PhD candidate spends 2-4 hours together with one internal and one external examiner discussing their work, after which they might pass with minor or major corrections (passing without corrections is extremely rare), or, heavens forbid, they fail (which is also extremely rare).
I had my viva on the 13th of December, and I’m excited to say that I passed with minor corrections. My internal examiner was Prof Andrew Fisher, an expert on condensed matter physics and head of the London Centre for Nanotechnology, and my external examiner was Prof Ivette Fuentes, who specialises in relativistic quantum field theory in curved spacetime and gravitational wave detection with Bose-Einstein condensates. She is also a founder of the Penrose Institute.
I found the viva itself quite enjoyable, it was a long discussion about my work, and many of the questions that my examiners asked me turned out to be genuinely interesting research questions that I hope to find the answer to in the future.
Looking back, the PhD was an enjoyable and challenging experience. I’ve had three wonderful years, and I look forwards to spending many more researching the topics I find interesting.