Explore the list below to find all available PhD projects.
You can choose to view lists ordered by lead supervisor to find the right projects for you. Alternatively, you can view our project topic pages where you will find our available PhD projects ordered by research area.
The lists include projects from our funded PhD programmes, including Doctoral Training Programmes (DTP) and Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT).
A number of our PhD projects for self-funded applicants may provide a scholarship or personal funds.
If you are interested in one of the projects listed below, we encourage you to contact the primary project supervisor or the alternative contact person for further information.
Current projects
B
Pore-Scale Imaging, Analysis, and Data-Driven Pore-Scale Modelling [Info Sheet - Blunt Pore-Scale Imaging]
Supervisor: Professor Martin Blunt
Topology, wettability and fluid flow in porous materials [Info Sheet - Blunt Topology]
Supervisor: Professor Martin Blunt
Modelling and predicting flotation froth stability [Info Sheet - Brito-Parada Froth Stability]
Supervisors: Dr Pablo Brito-Parada, Professor Stephen Neethling
C
Automated Crater Detection and Classification with Machine Learning [Info Sheet - Collins ACDC]
Supervisors: Prof Gareth Collins, Dr Ben Moseley, Dr Joel Davis
Decoding inner solar system bombardment from crater populations [Info Sheet - Collins Crater Scaling]
Supervisors: Prof Gareth Collins
Impact Processing of Planetary Crust [Info Sheet - Collins Impact Porosity]
Supervisors: Prof Gareth Collins, Mark Wieczorek (IPGP)
3D imaging of brain blood flow using ultrasound [Info Sheet - Cueto 3DUltrasoundImagingBrain]
Supervisors: Dr Carlos Cueto, Dr Lluis Guasch, Dr Sophie Morse
Unlocking Carbon Storage Potential: Evaluating Offshore Basalts of the Southwest Atlantic Margin [Info Sheet Collier - Unlocking]
Supervisors: Professor Jenny Collier, John Armitage (Université Paris Cité, France)
F
Digital twin tools for decarbonisation management [Info Sheet - Fang digital twin]
Supervisors: Dr Fangxin Fang
New generation data assimilation and rapid response models for urban flooding [Info Sheet - Fang Flooding]
Supervisors: Dr Fangxin Fang, Professor Christopher Pain
Optimisation of sensor locations for observation of air flows/pollutions [Info Sheet - Fang Sensor]
Supervisors: Dr Fangxin Fang, Professor Christopher Pain
Rapid Response Modelling for Assessment of Pollution and Toxic Releases in Complex Urban Environments [Info Sheet - Fang ROM]
Supervisors: Dr Fangxin Fang, Professor Christopher Pain
G
Mapping thermal and compositional structure of cratons [Info Sheet - Goes Cratons]
Supervisors: Professor Saskia Goes, Dr Ian Bastow
Structure and Evolution of the African Plate from Geophysical Observations [Info Sheet - Goes Africa Joint Tomography]
Supervisors: Professor Saskia Goes, Dr Gareth Roberts
Earthquake Forecasting Using Machine Learning
Supervisors: Professor Saskia Goes, Dr Alexandra Renouard, Prof. Peter Stafford (Civil), Dr Alex Whittaker
H
Reconstructing erosion rates and sediment supply from mountain belts using palaeo-topographic and palaeo-hydrological constraints [Info Sheet - Hampson Paleohydrology sediment supply]
Supervisors: Prof Gary Hampson, Dr Rhodri Jerrett (University of St Andrews)
Applying Dimensionality Reduction to Solutions on Finite Element Meshes with Autoencoders [Info Sheet - Heaney Autoencoders]
Supervisors: Dr Claire Heaney, Professor Christopher Pain
Large Scale AI Modelling for Environmental Flows [Info Sheet - Heaney Environmental Flows]
Supervisors: Dr Claire Heaney, Professor Christopher Pain
Simulation of geo-thermal wells with reduced order modelling and data assimilation [Info Sheet - Heaney ROM DA NORMS]
Supervisors: Dr Claire Heaney, Professor Christopher Pain, Professor Matthew Jackson
J
Modelling groundwater flow and heat transport in fractured aquifers with application to geothermal and underground thermal energy storage [Info Sheet - Jackson fractured heat]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Jackson, Meissam Bahlali (Imperial), Carl Jacquemyn (Imperial), Ed Hough (British Geological Survey), Andres Gonzalez Quiros (British Geological Survey)
Electrokinetic enhanced in-situ resource utilisation (EK-ISRU) for green copper production [Info Sheet - Jackson EK-ISRU]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Jackson, Dr Pablo Brito-Parada, Professor Stephen Neethling
K
Simulating impacts onto Saturn’s icy moons and rings [Info Sheet - Kegerreis Ice Impacts]
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Kegerreis, Professor Gareth Collins, Dr Paul Estrada (NASA)
Simulating impacts onto Earth: from enabling early life to causing extinction [Info Sheet - Kegerreis Earth Impacts]
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Kegerreis, Professor Gareth Collins, Dr Vincent Eke (Durham University)
Monitoring Global groundwater change using seismic methods [Info Sheet - Kim Groundwater Seismology]
Supervisors: Dr Doyeon Kim, Professor Matthew Jackson
Journey to the Core-Mantle Boundary Region: Uncovering Earth’s Hidden Structures through Seismology [Info Sheet - Kim Deep Earth]
Supervisors: Dr Doyeon Kim
Shaking Worlds: Exploring Planetary Quakes and Deep Interiors [Info Sheet - Kim Planetary]
Supervisors: Dr Doyeon Kim
Fundamentals of carbon dioxide storage by mineralisation to carbonate minerals [Info Sheet - Krevor CO2Mineralisation]
Supervisor: Prof Sam Krevor
Reservoir characterisation and modelling of CO2 storage underground [Info Sheet - Krevor CO2StorageModelling]
Supervisor: Prof Sam Krevor
Global CO2 storage capacity: Modeling limitations of geography and injectivity [Info Sheet - Krevor CO2StorageCapacity]
Supervisor: Prof Sam Krevor
Assessing the sustainability of lithium brine extraction in high Andean salars [Info Sheet - Hughes BGS Lithium Brine Extraction]
Supervisors: Dr Andrew Hughes (British Geological Survey), Professor Anna Korre, Dr Evi Petavratzi (British Geological Survey)
Antarctic surface hydrology and sea-level rise [Info Sheet - Kingslake antarctic surface]
Supervisors: Dr Jonathan Kingslake
Subglacial geothermal heating and ice dynamics [Info Sheet - Kingslake Subglacial geothermal heating]
Supervisors: Dr Jonathan Kingslake , Dr Fred Richards
L
Modelling the physics of granular rock compaction for characterisation of flow in reservoirs [Info Sheet - Latham Compaction Modelling]
Supervisors: Dr John-Paul Latham, Dr Jiansheng Xiang, Professor Martin Blunt
M
Developing time-series InSAR for understanding changes to the ground surface, subsurface, biosphere and environment [Info Sheet - Mason EnvironmentalEO]
Supervisors: Dr Philippa Mason, Dr James Lawrence (Civil Engineering, Imperial College London), Professor Richard Ghail (Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway UK)
Understanding surface processes on Venus: in support of the EnVision mission [Info Sheet - Mason Surface Processes Venus]
Supervisors: Dr Philippa Mason, Professor Richard Ghail (Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway UK), Dr Gareth Roberts
Understanding the role of submarine groundwater discharge using geochemical tracers [Info Sheet - Mckenzie ]
Supervisors: Dr Tristan McKenzie
In Situ Metal Concentration Measurements in Biological Research [Info Sheet - Rehkamper imaging medical]
Supervisors: Dr Rebekah Moore, Professor Mark Rehkämper
Brain ultrasound imaging with diffusion-guided full-waveform inversion. Info Sheet - Moseley Brain ultrasound imaging ]
Supervisors: Dr Ben Moseley
Learning fast and generalizable climate models with neural differential equations [Moseley - generalizable climate models]
Supervisors: Dr Ben Moseley, Professor Christopher Pain
Learnable optimisation algorithms for inverse problems [Info Sheet - Moseley Inversion]
Supervisor: Dr Ben Moseley
Learning dynamics on manifolds with neural geodesic flows [Moseley Learning dynamics on manifolds]
Supervisor: Dr Ben Moseley
Multi-scale simulation with physics-informed neural networks [Moseley - Multi-scale simulation]
Supervisor: Dr Ben Moseley
The Rayleigh-Taylor instability and its impact on CO2 mixing in saline aquifers [Info Sheet - Muggeridge the rayleigh]
Supervisors: Prof Ann Muggeridge
The role of geological processes on long term CO2 storage security in aquifers [Info Sheet - Muggeridge the role]
Supervisors: Prof Ann Muggeridge, Craig Smalley and Lidia Lonergan
Quantifying how earthquakes and impacts are magnetically recorded by rocks and meteorites [Info Sheet - Muxworthy mitchell stress]
Supervisors: Prof Adrian Muxworthy, and Prof. Tom Mitchell (UCL)
Using machine learning to magnetically fingerprint particulate matter [Info Sheet - Muxworthy fingerprint]
Supervisors: Prof Adrian Muxworthy, David Green (Public Health) and Wyn Williams (University of Edinburgh)
Determining ancient field intensities from chemical remanent magnetisations in rocks and meteorites [Info sheet - Ancient Field Intensities]
Supervisors: Prof. Adrian Muxworthy, Prof. Dominik Weiss, and Dr. David Heslop (ANU, Canberra)
Geophysical studies of the spreading structure of the Troodos Ophiolite, Cyprus [Info sheet - Troodos Ophiolite, Cyprus]
Supervisors: Prof. Adrian Muxworthy, Prof. Jenny Collier, and Simon Allerton (Cardiff)
Using the magnetic signature of former hydrocarbon-rich environments to test for the suitability of carbon Sequestration: A numerical approach [Info sheet - Magnetic Signature of Hydrocarbon-rich Environments]
Supervisors: Prof. Adrian Muxworthy, and Prof. Wyn Williams (University of Edinburgh)
Biomagnetic monitoring as an urban air quality assessment method [Info sheet - Biomagnetic Monitoring]
Supervisors: Prof. Adrian Muxworthy, Prof. Dominik Weiss, and Dr. David Green (Public Health)
N
Volatiles in zircon-hosted inclusions as indicators of porphyry copper fertility [Info Sheet - Nathwani zircon inclusions]
Supervisors: Dr Chetan Nathwani, Dr Yannick Buret (NHM), Prof Jon Blundy (University of Oxford)
Reading the textures of zircon crystals from porphyry copper deposits using machine learning [Info Sheet - Nathwani zircon textures]
Supervisors: Dr Chetan Nathwani, Dr Rossella Arcucci and Dr Ethan Tonks (Natural History Museum)
Developing machine learning models for using crystal textures to investigate magmatic evolution leading to explosive volcanic eruptions [Info Sheet - Nathwani volcanology]
Supervisors: Dr Chetan Nathwani, Dr. Chiara Petrone (NHM), Dr. Martin Mangler (Southampton), Dr. Rossella Arcucci
Reduced-Order and Sparse Reconstruction Methods for Cardiac Ultrasound FWI [Info Sheet - Nelson MI]
Supervisors: Dr Rhodri Nelson, Prof Gerard Gorman
Dynamic Mesh Adaptivity in Large-Scale Finite Difference Simulations [Info Sheet - Nelson AMR]
Supervisors: Dr Rhodri Nelson, Prof Gerard Gorman
Mixed-Precision Algorithms for High-Performance Physics Simulations [Info Sheet - Nelson RP]
Supervisors: Dr Rhodri Nelson, Prof Gerard Gorman
CASL in Devito: high-fidelity geophysical fluid simulation with contour methods[Info Sheet - Nelson CASL]
Supervisors: Dr Rhodri Nelson, Prof Gerard Gorman
P
AI modelling of underground water for heating buildings [Info Sheet - Pain Underground Water Heating]
Supervisors: Professor Christopher Pain, Dr Claire Heaney
Teleseismic full-waveform imaging of active volcanoes [Info Sheet - Paulatto TSFWI]
Supervisors: Dr Michele Paulatto, Dr Lluis Guasch, Professor James Hammond (Birkbeck University of London)
Dynamic Isotopic and Probabilistic Modelling of Global Metal Flows: Integrating Isotope Geochemistry, Bayesian Inference, and System Dynamics to Advance Industrial Ecology [Info Sheet - Plancherel DIPMod]
Supervisors: Dr Yves Plancherel, Rupert Myers, Pablo Brito-Parada, Kolyan Ray
Integrating Multimodal Very-High-Resolution Data for Ecosystem Intelligence and Natural Capital Monitoring [Info Sheet - Plancherel AI4UAV]
Supervisors: Dr Yves Plancherel, Matt Piggott
Data-Driven Detection and Attribution of Illegal Resource Extraction [Info Sheet - Plancherel IllegalResources]
Supervisors: Dr Yves Plancherel
R
Novel Applications of Trace Metal Stable Isotopes in Medical Research [Info Sheet - Rehkamper isotopes medical]
Supervisor: Professor Mark Rehkämper, Rebkah Moore
Tracing the Origin of Volatiles for the Earth, Moon and Mars – New Constraints from Isotopic Analyses of Meteorites [Info Sheet - Rehkamper Origin_Volatiles]
Supervisor: Professor Mark Rehkämper
Sources and Environmental Impacts of Aerosols – A unique case study in the Northern Indian Ocean [Info Sheet - Rehkämper Sources and Environmental Impacts]
Supervisor: Professor Mark Rehkämper, Tina van de Flierdt, Priyanka Banerjee
Understanding Modern Biogeochemical Cycles in the context of the international GEOTRACES project – Lead, cadmium, neodymium [Info sheet - GEOTRACES project]
Supervisors: Professor Mark Rehkämper, Professor Tina van de Flierdt
Mantle Dynamic Impacts on Cenozoic Sea-Level Evolution [Info Sheet - Richards mantle]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards
Mapping the Continental Hydrogen Kitchen [Info Sheet - Richards mapping]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards, Ann Muggeridge, Rebecca Bell, Valentin Laurent, and Michele Paulatto
Source-to-Sink Analysis of Critical Metal Mineralisation [Info Sheet - Richards source to sink]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards, Tom Lamont (UNLV) and Alex Lipp (UCL)
Uncovering the impact of mantle dynamics on Cenozoic ocean circulation [Info Sheet - Richards uncovering]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards
Megathrust Earthquake Hazards and Coastal Erosion of the Cascadia Subduction Zone (Pacific Northwest, USA) [Info Sheet - Rood Megathrust]
Supervisors: Dr Dylan Rood, Dr. Martin Hurst (University of Glasgow); Dr. Devin McPhillips (U.S. Geological Survey); Dr. Anna Rood (Global Earthquake Model - GEM - Foundation)
Using Cosmogenic Surface Exposure Dating to Reconstruct Late-Holocene Glacier and Climate Stability to Determine Precedence for Recent Declines in Snowpack and Water Resources in the American Pacific Northwest [Info Sheet - Rood Cosmogenic Surface Exposure]
Supervisor: Dr Dylan Rood
Validating Earthquake Hazard Models For Critical Engineered Structures Using Geologic Data And Cosmogenic Isotopes [Info Sheet - Rood Earthquake Engineering]
Supervisors: Dr Dylan Rood, Dr John-Paul Latham and Dr Peter Stafford
Will climate change make coastal erosion rates faster?: Comparing historic and Holocene cliff retreat rates using cosmogenic isotopes with numerical models [Info Sheet - Rood Coastal Erosion]
Supervisor: Dr Dylan Rood
S
Preserved Records of Life on Mars [Info Sheet - Sephton remove mars]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Dr Jonathan Watson
Meteorites and their organic records of the early solar system [Info Sheet - Sephton remove meteorite]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Dr Jonathan Watson
Life Detection at Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa [Info sheet - Life Detection at Europa]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Dr Jonathan Watson, Prof Hunter Waite (Alabama)
Artificial Intelligence for Life Detection at Europa [Info sheet - AI Techniques for Europa]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Dr Jonathan Watson, Prof Jonathan Carter, Prof Hunter Waite (Alabama)
Forensic Detection of Microplastics [Info sheet - Forensic Detection of Microplastics]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Dr Simon Davis, David Bell (Protium)
Atmospheric Pollution by Tyres [Info sheet - PAH Tyre Pollution]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Prof Alexandra Porter
V
Reconstructing the history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet using sediment provenance techniques [Info Sheet - Van de Flierdt West Antarctic Ice Sheet]
Supervisors: Professor Tina van de Flierdt, Dr Jim Marschalek
Environmental Pollution & Marine Biogeochemistry – Isotopic Tracing and Modelling of Lead & Cadmium in the Indian Ocean [Info Sheet - van De Flierdt indian ocean]
Supervisors: Professor Tina van de Flierdt, Professor Mark Rehkämper
W
Current projects in the Environmental Geochemistry Group for the Academic Year 2026/2027 [Info Sheet - Weiss PhD projects]
Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss
Supervisor: Professor Jamie Wilkinson
Machine learning for subsurface multiphase flow in the energy transition [Info sheet - Machine Learning for Multiphase Flow]
Supervisor: Dr Gege Wen
Reconstructing erosion rates and sediment supply from mountain belts using palaeo-topographic and palaeo-hydrological constraints [Info Sheet - Whittaker PalaeoHydrology]
Supervisor: Dr Alexander Whittaker, Prof Gary Hampson, Dr Rhodri Jerrett (St Andrews)
Characterising the Importance of Aseismic Creep and Slow Slip Events on Normal Faults [Info Sheet - Whittaker Slow slip]
Supervisor: Dr Alexander Whittaker, Dr Rebecca Bell, Dr Philippa Mason