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Information on:

PhD study

Postdoctoral research

Faculty visitors

Doing a PhD

General information

All general information can be found by clinking links in the School's postgraduate home page, where you can also find projects on offer. For my group, I encourage students to talk widely with others after they arrive, and then we can shape a project to suit their interests. Thus, at the application stage, it is only really necessary to have some idea about which of my three broad research areas grabs you most: particulate rheology, self-propelled particles (synthetic and living, including bacteria), and bacterial colonies.

The School's postgraduate contact is Jane Patterson, to whom all general enquiries should be directed.

UK students

UK students are usually funded by studentships from the EPSRC, which are awarded via the School on a competitive basis. Apart from applying directly to us, you should also consider applying for a 4-year PhD integrated with industrial training with the Soft Matter and Functional Interfaces (SOFI) EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training, run by jointly by Durham, Leeds and Edinburgh.

Rest of the EU

Note that an EPSRC studentship can only be used to pay the fees of students from the rest of the EU. Otherwise see below.

Rest of the world

The major source of competitive scholarships is with the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, typically with an end-of-January deadline for September entry. Information on awards for specific regions of the world can be found here.

Postdoctoral opportunities

We advertise postdoctoral research positions from time to time. These vacancies can be searched for here, where you will also find the online application forms and guidance. These positions will be to work on specific projects on grants held by various PIs in the group.

If you have a good idea for a research programme that fits well with our profile, you should consider applying for a personal research fellowship. The main agencies that offer these are the EPSRC, the Royal Society, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

If you are from the rest of EU, you may want to write a fellowship for one of the schemes under the EU's Marie Curie Action.

Fellowship applications that are well integrated with the group have better chances; so do not hesitate to contact me at the earliest possible opportunity to discuss possibilities if you think this is the right route for you.

Faculty Visitors

We have some funds to facilitate visits from PIs. Do contact me if you're interested. Those at an appropriate career stage may want to consider a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship.