PhD & MSci Opportunities within the Department

IARC offers a wide range of PhD projects and has an active postgraduate research programme. We also welcome approaches from students who wish to discuss research projects within their own area of interest.

IARC also contributes three courses to the undergraduate degrees offered by the Department of Earth Science and Engineering including planetary geology, developments in planetary geophysics and geochemistry, and Earth systems. MSci Planetary research projects are also supervised by IARC.

 

Tabs - PhD & MSci

PhD Projects

The department, together with the Natural History Museum, hosts the IARC planetary science group: One of the leading groups worldwide. If you are interested in one of the projects listed below please feel free to contact the associated staff. You can discover more about the IARC group from their website.

Projects

Modelling large impact crater formation: why do large craters collapse?
Gareth Collins

Modelling the Chicxulub impact: is crater asymmetry produced by impact angle or asymmetry in target rocks?
Gareth Collins and Joanna Morgan

Numerical Simulations of Crater Formation with Dilatancy for Analysis of GRAIL data 
Gareth Collins and Mark Wieczorek

Numerical methods for simulating ejection and survivability of meteorites from Mars
Gareth Collins and Alan Dawes (AWE)

Mixing and Volatile Depletion in the Early Solar System
Mark Rehkamper 

Subduction initiation and ophiolites: isotopic links?
Julie Prytulak

Mars, Meteorites and Antarctica
Mark Sephton and Samuel Kounaves

MSci Projects

IARC staff are actively involved in supervising MSCi research projects in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering. MSCi research projects are a major part of the final year of Earth Science students in the department. The projects are designed to give undergraduate students experience of conducting independent scientific research and obtain experience of the latest analytical and computational techniques. The results of the department’s research projects are often published as scientific papers.

Recent and current MSCi projects supervised by IARC include:

A study of metal distribution in chondrules

This research examines the spatial distribution of metal within chondrules in order to determine their dynamic behaviour during formation in the early solar system. The project involves numerical image analysis and scanning electron microscope data collection.

The nature of metal-silicate immiscibility at Disko Island, western Greenland

This project focuses on native iron-nickel metal formed due to liquid immiscibility in basalts of Disko Island, Greenland. The research aims to use data derived as analogs of metal separation during core formation on planetary bodies.

Simulations of impacts into water

This research project examines the effect of water layers on the form of impact craters on the surface of the Earth. The project involves the numerical simulation of impact craters using hydrodynamic codes.

More information on the MSCi Degree.