Explore our projects lists 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
Monitoring seismicity at volcanoes with geothermal prospects in Ethiopia [Info Sheet - Bastow Geothermal Prospects]
Supervisors: Dr Ian Bastow, Dr Derek Keir (School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton)
Geological and geophysical investigation of the environmental evolution of the southern North Sea for offshore wind applications [Info Sheet - Bell G&G for Offshore Wind Applications]
Supervisors: Dr Rebecca Bell; Prof. Gary Hampson, Department of Earth Science and Engineering; Dr. Mark Vardy, SAND Geophysics; Mr. Gareth Carter, BGS; Mr. Abdulqadir Cader, GeoTeric
Pore-scale Modelling and Analysis of Reactive Transport in Carbon Storage and Oil Recovery [Info Sheet - Bijeljic Reactive Transport]
Supervisor: Dr Branko Bijeljic
Minimal surfaces in porous materials: wettability design for optimal flow performance [Info Sheet - Blunt Infuse]
Supervisors: Professor Martin Blunt, Dr Branko Bijeljic, Professor Jerry Heng (Department of Chemical Engineering)
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
Coupling Life Cycle Assessment and modelling tools to inform sustainable mineral resource management Info Sheet - Brito-Parada LCA
Supervisors: Dr Pablo Brito-Parada, Dr Stephanie Muller (BRGM, France), Jacques Villeneuve (BRGM, France)
C
Magmatism and Continental Breakup in the South Atlantic [Info Sheet - Collier South Atlantic Magmatism]
Supervisors: Professor Jenny Collier, Dr Gareth Roberts, Dr Lidia Lonergan
Structure and tsunamigenic potential of the Lesser Antilles accretionary prism [Info Sheet - Collier Prism]
Supervisors: Professor Jenny Collier, Professor Tim Henstock (Southampton)
Tectonics of the North America/South America plate boundary [Info Sheet - Collier Tectonics]
Supervisors: Professor Jenny Collier, Professor Tim Henstock (Southampton)
Tagmatism and Continental Breakup in the South Atlantic [Info Sheet - Collier Sosem]
Supervisors: Professor Jenny Collier, Tim Minshull (Univ. Southampton, UK), Marta PerezGussinye (Univ. Bremen, Germany)
Simulating impacts onto Saturn’s icy moons and rings [Info sheet - Ice Impacts]
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Kegerreis (jkegerreis@seti.org), Professor Gareth Collins, Dr Paul Estrada (paul.r.estrada@nasa.gov)
Simulating impacts onto Earth: from enabling early life to causing extinction [Info sheet - Earth Impacts]
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Kegerreis (jkegerreis@seti.org), Professor Gareth Collins, Dr Vincent Eke (v.r.eke@durham.ac.uk)
Decoding inner solar system bombardment from impact crater populations [Info Sheet - Collins Crater Scaling]
Supervisor: Professor Gareth Collins
Impact Processing of Planetary Crust [Info Sheet - Collins Impact Porosity]
Supervisors: Professor Gareth Collins, Mark Wieczorek (IPGP)
Meteoroid fragmentation in planetary atmospheres and the formation of crater clusters on Earth and Mars [Info Sheet - Collins Meteoroid Fragmentation]
Supervisor: Professor Gareth Collins
Multiscale modeling of compaction of primitive solar system materials [Info Sheet - Collins Multiscale]
Supervisors: Professor Gareth Collins, Dr Tom Davison, Professor Phil Bland (Curtin)
Simulating submarine slide tsunami inundation of the Shetland Islands [Info Sheet - Collins Shetlands]
Supervisors: Professor Gareth Collins, Professor Matthew Piggott, Professor Sue Dawson (Dundee)
Automated Crater Detection and Classification with Machine Learning [Info Sheet - Collins ACDC]
Supervisors: Professor Gareth Collins, Dr Navjot Kukreja (Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool), Associate Professor Nicholas Warner (Department of Geological Sciences, SUNY Geneseo, USA)
D
The evolution of the Kasei Valles outflow channel: A window into the changing palaeo-climate of Mars [Info Sheet - Davis UKSA Kasei Studentship]
Supervisors: Dr Joel Davis, Professor Sanjeev Gupta, Dr Peter Grindrod (Dept. of Earth Science, Natural History Museum), Assistant Professor Gaia Stucky de Quay (Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
F
Anisotropic Geoelectrical Imaging - can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace conventional resistivity inversion approaches? [Info Sheet - Fang Anisotropic Geoelectrical Imaging]
Supervisors: Dr Fangxin Fang, Professor Christopher Pain, Dr Paul Wilkinson (British Geological Survey), Dr Oliver Kuras (British Geological Survey), Dr Jorg Herwanger (MP Geomechanics)
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
Microspherules in the geological record [Info Sheet - Genge Microspherules]
Supervisor: Dr Matthew Genge
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 Learningm
Supervisors: Professor Saskia Goes, Dr. Alexandra Renouard, Prof. Peter Stafford (Civil), Dr. Alex Whittaker
Redundancy, retiming and data flow in compiling finite-difference applications for many core architectures [Info Sheet - Gorman OPESCI]
Supervisors: Dr Gerard Gorman, Professor Paul Kelly (Department of Computing), Dr Fabio Luporini
H
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
Developing the world’s largest geobattery: ultra-hightemperature underground thermal energy storage for large-scale electricity storage in the UK [Info Sheet - Jackson Geobattery]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Jackson, Professor Gary Hampson, Dr Marko Aunedi, (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
Efficient numerical modelling of subsurface hydrogen storage for low carbon energy [Info Sheet - Jackson Subsurface Hydrogen Storage]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Jackson, Professor Gary Hampson
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
Fluid dynamics of magma reservoirs [Info Sheet - Jackson CFD]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Jackson, Dr Haiyang Hu, Professor Jon Blundy (University of Oxford)
Rapid modelling of reactive flow using machine learning and dynamic mesh optimisation [Info Sheet - Jackson Reactive Flow]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Jackson, Professor Chris Pain, Dr Claire Heaney
Storage and transport of microplastics in groundwater [Info Sheet - Jackson Microplastics]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Jackson, Professor Gary Hampson, Professor Alexandra Porter (Department of Materials), Dr Geoff Fowler (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
K
Earth-based Geophysical Investigation of the Near Subsurface Structures for Future in situ Resource Utilization on the Moon [Info Sheet - Kim Planetary Analog ISRU Moon]
Supervisors: Dr Doyeon Kim, Dr Ian Bastow, Associate Professor Nick Schmerr (University of Maryland)
Exploring origin and composition of the lowermost mantle structures with machine learning methods and seismology [Info Sheet - Kim Lower Mantle Structures]
Supervisors: Dr Doyeon Kim, Dr Frederick Richards, Professor Ved Lekic (University of Maryland)
Lunar seismology: from Apollo mission to the Farside Seismic Suite and beyond [Info Sheet - Kim Lunar Seismology]
Supervisors: Dr Doyeon Kim, Professor Gareth Collins, Professor Tom Pike (EEE), Dr Mark Panning (JPL)
Monitoring Global groundwater change using seismic methods [Info Sheet - Kim Groundwater Seismology]
Supervisors: Dr Doyeon Kim, Professor Matthew Jackson
Probing Mars’ interior structure and planetary seismicity/tectonics [Info Sheet - Kim Mars Interior Seismicity]
Supervisors: Dr Doyeon Kim, Dr Ana-Catalina Plesa (DLR), Dr, Mark Wieczorek (IPGP)
Global CO2 storage capacity: Modeling limitations of geography and injectivity [Info sheet - Global CO2 Storage capacity]
Supervisor: Dr Sam Krevor
Reservoir characterisation and modelling of CO2 storage underground [Info sheet - Reservoir characterisation and modelling of CO2 storage underground]
Supervisor: Dr Sam Krevor and others TBA
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)
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 Time-Series InSAR]
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
Submarine channels, deformation, and routing of sediment and plastics to the deep ocean [Info Sheet - Mayall Sediment Routing]
Supervisors: Professor Mike Mayall, Dr Alex Whittaker, Professor Gary Hampson, Dr Lidia Lonergan
Testing the Geocentric Axial Dipole hypothesis: Palaeomagnetic analysis of the Westfjords lavas, Iceland. [Info sheet - Geocentric Axial Dipole]
Supervisors: Prof. Adrian Muxworthy, Dr. Elisa Piispa (University of Reykjavik) and Dr. Arne Døssing (DTU, Denmark)
Field and experimental determination of the role of low pressures (< 1GPa) on the fidelity of magnetic recording in rocks and meteorites [Info sheet - Magnetic Recording in Rocks and Meteorites]
Supervisors: Prof. Adrian Muxworthy, Prof. Tom Mitchell (UCL)
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)
Learning fast and generalizable climate models with neural differential equations [Info Sheet - Moseley NDEs]
Supervisors: Dr Ben sey, Professor Christopher Pain
Novel applications of trace metal stable isotopes in medical research [Info Sheet - Rehkämper Isotopes Medical Research]
Supervisors: Dr Rebekah Moore, Professor Mark Rehkämper
N
Simulation of charge-slurry interactions in tumbling and stirred mills [Info Sheet - Neethling Simulation of Mills]
Supervisor: Professor Stephen Neethling
The impact of mineral texture on the relationship between particle size, surface exposure and mineral liberation: A key to coarse particle flotation [Info Sheet - Neethling Coarse Particle Flotation]
Supervisor: Professor Stephen Neethling
P
AI modelling of underground water for heating buildings [Info Sheet - Pain Underground Water Heating]
Supervisors: Professor Christopher Pain, Dr Claire Heaney
PhD Studentship: Numerical Modelling of Cycling Subsurface Fluid Storage [Info Sheet - Paluszny Numerical Modelling]
Supervisors: Dr Adriana Paluszny and Dr Ronny Pini
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)
Accelerating Scientific Discovery of Complex Scientific Applications with Process-Guided Deep Learning: Aquatic Eco-Dynamics in Lakes [Info Sheet - Piggott Lakes]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Piggott, Dr R. Iestyn Woolway (University of Reading), Professor Stephen Maberly (UK CEH)
Understanding and minimising the potential environmental impacts of tidal range (lagoon) based renewable energy generation via advanced numerical modelling [Info Sheet - Piggott Tidal Lagoons]
Supervisor: Professor Matthew Piggott
Tracking Illegal Gold Mining Safely with Earth Observations and Machine Learning [Info Sheet - Plancherel Illegal Gold Mining]
Supervisors: Dr Yves Plancherel, Dr Pablo Brito-Parada, Dr Philippa Mason
Exploiting the GEOTRACES toolbox to characterize ocean biogeochemical processes: trace elements, isotopes and new quasi-conservative tracers [Info Sheet - Plancherel GEOTRACES]
Supervisors: Dr Yves Plancherel, Professor Mark Rehkamper, Professor Tina van de Flierdt
Modeling the global Pb cycle: from industrial emissions to the bottom of the ocean [Info Sheet - Plancherel Pb Cycle]
Supervisor: Dr Yves Plancherel
R
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
Mixing and Volatile Depletion in the Early Solar System [Info Sheet - Rehkämper Mixing Volatile Depletion ESS]
Supervisor: Professor Mark Rehkämper
Tracing the Origin of Volatiles for the Earth, Moon and Mars – New Constraints from Isotopic Analyses of Meteorites [Info Sheet - Tracing the Origin of Volatiles]
Supervisor: Professor Mark Rehkämper
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
Integrating Geochemistry and Geophysics to Make Critical Metal Treasure Maps [Info Sheet - Richards Treasure Maps]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards, Dr Gareth Roberts, Professor Saskia Goes, Dr Mark Hoggard (Australian National University), Dr Karol Czarnota (Geoscience Australia)
Deciphering the influence of mantle dynamics on Cenozoic records of sea-level change [Info sheet - Deciphering the influence of mantle dynamics]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards, Gareth Roberts
Hot rocks in cold places: Quantifying mantle dynamic impacts on Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution [Info sheet - Hot rocks in cold places]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards
Mapping the Mantle Zoo: Integrating geodynamics, seismology and mineral physics to characterize Earth’s internal chemical reservoirs [Info sheet - Mapping the Mantle Zoo]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards, Prof Saskia Goes
Continental Uplift and Erosion From Drainage Patterns: Predicting Sedimentary Flux to Passive Margins [Info Sheet - Roberts Drainage Patterns]
Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts and Professor Matthew Piggott
Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Data and tools for geochemical baselines and chemical fluxes through landscapes [Info Sheet - Roberts Hard Rock to Heavy Metal]
Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Dr Yves Plancherel, Dr Alex Whittaker, Charles Gowing (British Geological Survey), Dr Alex Lipp (University of Oxford, Earth Sciences)
Histories of mantle convection: Constraints from Arabia's landscape [Info Sheet - Roberts Arabia]
Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Dr Alex Whittaker and Dylan Rood
Mapping pollutants and biodiversity throughout drainage basins [Info Sheet - Roberts Mapping Pollutants]
Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Dr Leon Barron (School of Public Health), Professor Guy Woodward (Life Sciences), Dr Alex Lipp (Earth Sciences, University of Oxford)
Modeling landscape evolution through space and time [Info Sheet - Roberts Landscape Evolution]
Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Professor Matthew Piggott, Professor Gareth Collins and Dr Alex Whittaker
Exploring terrestrial geological evidence for past glaciation and volcanism in the Thwaites Glacier catchment, Antarctica [Info Sheet - Johnson Thwaites Glacier]
Supervisors: Joanne Johnson (British Antarctic Survey), Dr Dylan Rood, Associate Professor Brent Goehring (Tulane University), and Stephen Roberts (British Antarctic Survey)
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
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)
Combined Techniques for the Detection of Biosignatures: Preparation for Mars Sample Return [Info sheet - Biosignatures by Combined Techniques]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Dr Jonathan Watson, Keyron Hickman-Lewis (Birkbeck)
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)
Capture Carbon Dioxide on Shales [Info Sheet - Sephton Shales]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Professor Craig Smalley, Professor Al Fraser
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 - West Antarctic Ice Sheet]
Supervisors: Professor Tina van de Flierdt, Dr Jim Marschalek
W
Current projects in Environmental Geochemistry and Engineering [Info sheet - Current projects in Environmental Geochemistry and Engineering]
Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss
Tectonics from topography in Central Greece: decoding the history of fault growth and landscape evolution in the Corinth Rift [Info Sheet - Whittaker Corinth Rift]
Supervisors: Dr Alex Whittaker, Dr Rebecca Bell
Supervisor: Professor Jamie Wilkinson, Prof. Geoff Bromiley (University of Edinburgh)
Development of UV-fluorescence spectroscopy as a tool for mineral exploration [Info Sheet - Wilkinson UV Fluorescence]
Supervisor: Professor Jamie Wilkinson
Developing a chemical audit approach for characterisation of mine site material [Info Sheet - Wilkinson Chemical Audit]
Supervisor: Profesor Jamie Wilkinson
Residence and mobility of metals in the alteration zones of porphyry ore systems [Info Sheet - Wilkinson Detrital accessories porphyry]
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