Possibility of doing PhD in astronomy with only masters in CS I have a masters degree in Computer Science &amp; Engineering (and currently employed in s/w industry in India), but have no degree in physics. For long, I've been interested in doing research in physics, especially in astronomy, astrophysics or in particle physics.


Are there good institutes or universities in EU, US or India which accept students without any degree in physics to PhD program in astronomy or astrophysics? If so, do they also offer financial assistance or some form of scholarship to such students to meet at least one's tuition fee expenses?
I checked with an institute in Germany that offers PhD in physics but I was told that a masters degree in physics is a mandatory prerequisite. Does this apply to all leading German institutes? What about other leading institutes in EU or in the US?
What are the pros and cons, if any, between doing PhD in US versus in EU, especially in the field of physics (in the subdomains I mentioned, if that too matters)?
In Sweden there is no hard requirement. (In Spain, for that matter, there isn't either, but I don't recommend going for a PhD there). You just need to convince a professor that you are a good asset for the team. The way it works here (and in some other countries in Europe) is that the PI gets funding and hires whomever he wants, based on whatever criteria. Other countries make the decision at a department level, usually putting stress on the marks. Anyway, the difference is convincing one party or a few.

It is true that all the people I know in the closest related department, are physicist, but they do a lot of programming and data analysis. Your strong points are:


You can improve code quality. (I have seen code that gives me nightmares.)
You can implement new algorithms.
You can learn the physics along the way.


CS backgrounds are, by the way, quite common in Bioinformatics and, to a lesser degree, Biophysics.

References:

I am in Sweden working in Biophysics, and my girlfriend is doing a PhD in Astrophysics.