PhD students in Aeronautics wind tunnel

PhD opportunities

‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌Graduates of our PhD programmes are active with industrial firms, universities and research establishments, not only within the aerospace sector, but in fields as diverse as deep-sea oil rigs, atomic reactors, submarine and ship design, bridge research, racing car and engine research, atmospheric pollution, and in many other aspects of industrial aerodynamics, structural analysis and materials.

Find out how to apply for a research programme.

Highly qualified prospective PhD students are also encouraged to obtain their own PhD scholarship. Opportunities for this can be found on the postgraduate scholarship webpage (note that most of these are highly competitive).

Prospective students should contact relevant academic staff to agree on a suitable project if interested in this option.

Funded PhD opportunities

  • Title: Turbulence – droplet interactions for cloud microphysics
    Supervisor: Prof Oliver Buxton and Prof Sylvain Laizet
    Ref: AE0066
    Deadline:
    23 January 2025
  • Title: Advanced Numerical Methods for Structural Aircraft Simulation
    Supervisor: Prof Silvestre Pinho
    Ref: AE0065
    Deadline:
    17 December 2024
  • Title: Doctoral Programme in Sustainable Aviation
    Research Institute: Brahmal Vasudevan Institute for Sustainable Aviation
    Ref: AE0064
    Deadline: 6 January 2025

  • Title: Aerodynamic theory of ultra-efficient aircraft rotors
    Supervisors:  Dr Kostas Steiros
    Ref: AE0063
    Deadline: 9 January 2025

  • Title: Scientific machine learning to support aviation sustainability
    Supervisor:
    Dr Sebastian Eastham and Dr Urban Fasel
    Ref: AE0062
    Deadline:
    9 January 2025

  • Title: High-Fidelity Simulation of Titan/Mars Entry Vehicles with PyFR
    Supervisor: Professor Peter Vincent, Professor Oliver Buxton, Dr. Paul Bruce and 
    Professor Matthew Santer
    Ref: AE0061
    Deadline:
    9 January 2025

  • Title: High-fidelity simulations of turbulence flows on heterogeneous computer systems
    Supervisor: Professor Sylvain Laizet
    Ref: AE0060
    Deadline:
    9 January 2025

  • Title: Magnetic Suspension Balances (MSBS) for Drag Reduction
    Supervisor:
    Professor Jonathan Morrison
    Ref: AE0059
    Deadline:
    9 January 2025

  • Title: Theoretical/Computational Fluid dynamics
    Supervisor:  Professor Yongyun Hwang
    Ref: AE0058
    Deadline: 9 January 2025 

  • Title: Reinforcement Learning for controlling nonlinear physical systems: application to wind farm optimization
    Supervisor: Professor Sylvain Laizet and Dr Georgios Rigas
    Ref: AE0057
    Deadline: 9 January 2025 

  • Title: Safe Data-Driven Control - Bridging the Gap Between Nonlinear Control and Machine Learning 
    Supervisor:  Dr Thulasi Mylvaganam
    Ref: AE0056
    Deadline: 9 January 2025

  • Title: Advanced representations of orbital uncertainty in astrodynamics
    Supervisor: Dr Davide Amato
    AE0055
    Deadline:
    3rd December 2024
    Ref:
    AE0055

  • Title: Beyond Self-similarity in Turbulence
    Supervisor: Dr Kostas Steiros
    AE0054
    Deadline:
    23rd October 2024
    Ref:
    AE0054

  • Title: Amelia and John Kentfield PhD Scholarships
    Supervisor: Various
    AE0053
    Deadline:
    9th January 2025
    Ref: AE0053

  • Title: Design, manufacturing and characterisation of functional and green end-of-life cellulose-based materials 
    Supervisor: Dr Koon-yang Lee
    AE0052
    Deadline:
    18th August 2024
    Ref:
    AE0052

  • Title: PhD Studentship in Modelling and Observation of Aircraft Condensation Trails
    Supervisor: Dr Sebastian Eastham
    AE0051
    Deadline:
    8th August 2024
    Ref:
    AE0051

  • Title: Understanding and modelling accidental hydrogen explosions (AE0048_v2)
    Supervisor:
    Dr Vito Tagarielli
    AE0048_v2
    Deadline:
    Until filled
    Ref:
    AE0048_v2

  • Title: Predictive Performance Dispersion Model of Satellite Thrusters
    Supervisor:
    Dr Aaron Knoll
    AE0046
    Deadline:
    21 May 2024
    Ref:
    AE0046

  • Title: Brahmal Vasudevan Institute for Sustainable Aviation - PhD Studentship on Multidisciplinary Aircraft Design
    Supervisor:
    Dr Rhea Liem
    AE0045_V2
    Deadline:
    until filled
    Ref:
    AE0045

    Title: Coarse-grid CFD for plant-scale simulations
    AE0037 
    Supervisor: Prof Joaquim Peiro
    Deadline: until filled
    Ref: AE0037

    Supervisor:
     
    ‌Dr Qianqian LI
    Deadline: Until filled
    Ref: AE0013v3
    Title:  Advanced lightweight metal nanocomposites for the energy transition: interface design and manufacture

    Advanced lightweight metal

 

Fees, Funding and Scholarships

The amount of funding you will need to fund a PhD will vary according to your fee status (UK, EU or overseas). Please see Imperial College's student fees and funding pages for information on fees, living costs and College-administered scholarships.

Students in the department are funded from a variety of sources, including UK Research Councils, industry, College scholarships and departmental funding.

For scholarships administered from either the College or our Department, any applicant is automatically considered for any scholarships they are eligible for, unless stated otherwise by the applicant and unless it is the President’s PhD Scholarship. Special procedures apply when applying for the President’s PhD Scholarship.

There are many funding options available for students, including, but not limited to the below:

PhD Contacts

PhD Administrator (Admissions)
Ms Lisa Kelly
l.kelly@imperial.ac.uk

PhD Administrator (On-course)
Ms Clodagh Li
c.li@imperial.ac.uk

Director of Postgraduate Studies (PhD)
Dr Chris Cantwell
c.cantwell@imperial.ac.uk

Senior Tutor for Postgraduate Research
Prof Joaquim Peiro
j.peiro@imperial.ac.uk

PhD Reps 
Charlie Aveline (ca1119@ic.ac.uk)
Toby Bryce-Smith (tb1416@ic.ac.uk)
Katya Goodwin (yg7118@ic.ac.uk)
Paulina Gordina (pg919@ic.ac.uk)

 

Opportunities for current PhD students