The Department of Chemistry has 4 departmental scholarships for PhD applicants starting in 2023/24.

This scheme is only eligible to applicants who have home fee status. The scholarship will cover the full fees and stipend (UKRI London rate - £20,622 for 2023-24) for the 3 years 6 months of the student’s PhD studies.

We encourage applications from all backgrounds to apply. The Departmental Scholarship Panel will consider academic excellence, research potential and extracurricular activities. The Panel will also take into account other aspects, such as overcoming adversity, outreach and community activities and widening participation.

Interested candidates should make contact and discuss a research project with a PhD supervisor based in the Chemistry Department. After discussions with the chosen supervisor, candidates must complete a Chemistry Department scholarship application form. The supervisor will then return the documentation to the department for consideration by the Scholarship Panel. The date for submission of this documentation is Friday 1st December 2023. There will be no panel interview.

We are committed to equality and valuing diversity. The Department of Chemistry is an Athena SWAN gold Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Two Ticks Employer, and is working in partnership with GIRES to promote respect for trans people. We particularly encourage applicants from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

The mission of the ICB CDT is to train postgraduate researchers with the language, knowledge and skills to enable them to work at the interface between the physical and life sciences, producing researchers with expertise and understanding that spans both fields, and who are able to embrace Lab of the Future platforms – which is at the heart of our new remit. This skill set is in great demand from future employers and short supply and has the potential to revolutionise the state of the art with respect to manipulating, measuring and modelling molecular interactions in biological systems and will transform R&D pipelines.

This will transform our understanding of molecular mechanisms of disease, stimulate novel agrochemical design and underpin structured product breakthroughs, whilst also enabling fundamental discovery in the life and medical sciences.

Our programme, with EDI, student empowerment & cohort formation at its core, fuses blue skies & translational research with professional skills courses and workplace training. Students emerge with a knowledge of molecular technologies, sustainable product development, lean innovation & early-stage commercialisation. Our multi-disciplinary supervision model, with every student in the CDT having at least two supervisors, one from the physical sciences and one from the life sciences, comprises 1-year MRes + 3-year PhD, with for the first time an optional 1 year post doctoral fellowship, called Elevate, that will offer graduates unparalleled in-work experience.

The Frost group welcomes applications for 2024 starting PhD students. The priority areas for funding are in method development in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics. The two headline projects projects are: using machine-learning and probabilistic numerics approaches to improve sampling in (path integral) quantum Monte-Carlo; and in developing path-integral based methods (SMatPI, QuAPI, Transfer Tensor Method) of simulating nonadiabatic dynamics and applying these methods to molecular materials for photovoltaics and the upconversion of light. The two fully funded positions are supported by the Royal Society, with a 48-month London-weighted tax-free stipend of £22410 for year 1, £23204 for year 2, £23901 for year 3, and £24618 for year 4, and full home-fees.

An initial informal discussion is very welcome: jarvist.frost@imperial.ac.uk

More details are available on Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bcra0WqoRaVACxPvCAr8kF9m7RgBl_dunGGWbrev-cg/edit?usp=sharing

Scalable Kinetic Dynamic Resolution Strategies for the Production of Chiral Compounds

Supervisors: Prof King Kuok (Mimi) Hii (Imperial College London), Dr Christian Holtze (BASF), Dr Philipp Staehle (BASF)

Home Department: Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London (White City Campus)

Funding and Deadline: To be eligible for support, applicants must be “UK Residents” as defined by the EPSRC. The studentship is for 4 years starting as soon as possible and will provide full coverage of standard tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of approximately £20,622. Applicants should hold or expect to obtain a First-Class Honours or a high 2:1 degree at Master’s level (or equivalent) in any relevant chemistry or science subject. Funding is co-funded through Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and BASF.

 Project summary

The Industry Case (I-Case) PhD student will join an interdisciplinary cohort of students working under the umbrella of the IConIC Prosperity Partnership An internship of min. 3 months will be facilitated and sponsored by BASF for the utilization of specific infrastructure and technology transfer.

Enantioselective synthesis remains to be a major challenge in classical organic synthesis both technically and economically. In collaboration between BASF and Imperial College London we have developed a novel processing concept that combines an an immobilized enzymatic transformation with flash thermal racemization for the racemization of chiral amines, i. e. a dynamic kinetic resolution approach. It can be applied to amines and stereoinversion reactions.[1] At the heart of the technology is the development of a flow module that can realize rapid racemization of the amine with high selectivity, afforded by residence time control, increasing the productivity of the process by several orders of magnitude. In this proposed follow-on work, we will extend the concept to the synthesis of other optically active compounds that are essential to the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries and demonstrate scalability in a lab setup. [1] M. J. Takle, B. J. Deadman, K. Hellgardt, J. Dickhaut, A. Weija, K. K. Hii, ACS Catal. 2023, 13, 10541-6. DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.3c02859.

Key questions to be addressed during the PhD will be: Establishing an integrated process that couples transition metal catalysis with biocatalysis in flow, using spatial and residence time control to achieve kinetically compatible systems to maximise productivity. - Expanding the concept to a range of different chemical transformations. This may entail the integration of an enantiomer separation step into the processing concept. - Preparing the opposite enantiomer/epimer of natural materials through stereocentre inversion, including unnatural (D-)amino acids. - Scaling up the process to yield relevant demonstrator samples and prove the applicability of the methodology for commercial purposes.

To apply, please complete an application form Application process | Study | Imperial College London.   Informal enquiries about the post and the application process can be made to Bhavna Patel (iconic-pp@imperial.ac.uk)