According to the "Standard Model" of Condensed-Matter Physics, i.e., the Bloch theory, metal or insulator are mutually exclusive states of matter. The very existence of a metal-to-insulator transition (MIT), observed in several vanadium oxides, shakes the foundations of such a well-tested model! During this PhD, you will use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), a technique that directly images the electronic eigenenergies of a solid, to study the evolution of the electronic structure and broken symmetries induced by temperature, doping and strain across the archetypal MIT in V2O3 and VO2. Passion for travelling, discovering and exploring other cultures is a must! Our experiments are regularly performed at several synchrotrons around Europe (France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, among others), Japan (Tsukuba, Sendai), and China (Shanghai). You will also participate to the assembly and operation of a lab-based high-resolution ARPES system coupled to a chamber for thin-film growth.