Students and prospective students
Student opportunitites
PhD Opportunities
Interested in a PhD in Astrophysics for October 2023 entry?
The 2023 Astrophysics Group PhD Open Day was held on Wednesday 18th January. If you missed the open day you can watch the recording here.
Most of our PhD applications are for STFC funded places, so we set up formal deadlines for applications and dates for interviews. The application deadline for STFC funded places is 6th February 2023 - please note that it can take several weeks for your application to reach us from Registry, if you are submitting shortly before the deadline please send a copy of your application directly to us via astro@imperial.ac.uk.
If you are an overseas candidate who would need funding from a scholarship you must apply earlier than the deadline for STFC funded places. To be considered for main round of the Imperial College President's PhD Scholarships you must apply before the 6th January 2023. To be eligible for the full range of Imperial Scholarships you must apply before 31st January 2023, you will then be considered for all scholarships as part of the assessment process. If you are interested in applying for one of these please apply as soon as possible, you are welcome to discuss your application with potential supervisors before you apply. If you are a candidate who does not require funding please indicate this on the application form.
Interviews will be held on the 7th and 8th March 2023 (or near this date for candidates unavailable on those dates), offers will be made shortly after.
Applying
Applications must be made online via the Postgraduate Prospectus, we cannot process applications sent directly to us. The application form will ask for a "research proposal", we do not require a detailed proposal, please use this to describe which topics and/or projects you're interested in applying for. You are welcome to contact our staff members to discuss potential projects before making your application. For further information please see frequently asked questions. Find out more about the application process.
Funding
A PhD normally takes 3.5 years to complete. We accept around 3-6 PhD students each year, mainly funded by STFC. Please see the STFC website to check your eligibility for these.
Visit the following link find out further information on postgraduate fees and funding.
PhD Projects
PhD projects for 2023 entry will be continually added throughout the 2022-2023 application period.
The currently list of projects for 2023 entry can found here.
Information for current PhD students
PG lecture courses
The programme for this year will be posted on this page nearer the time.
In addition, the Graduate School offers a range of transferable skills courses. All postgraduate students will need to attend a minimum set of these in order to progress.
Welfare & questions
Physics Department PG pages - for procedural timetable, forms and PG information from the College and Physics Department
Astro PG representative:
Ellie Gleave (e.gleave20@imperial.ac.uk) Room 1003 Tel 47543 & Kimeel Sooknunan (k.sooknunan19@imperial.ac.uk). Rooms 1014
Astro PG Coordinator: Dr Jonathan Pritchard
Room 1018c Blackett, email j.pritchard@imperial.ac.uk tel 47557
Physics Department PG Advisor: Dr Arnaud Czaja
Room 726 Huxley, a.czajal@imperial.ac.uk, tel 41789
Physics Department PG Administrator: Loli Sanchez
Room 316 Blackett , l.sanchez@imperial.ac.uk, tel 47512
| Student | Research Area | Supervisor/s |
|---|---|---|
| Tze-An (Blake) Chang | Dr Yvonne Unruh | |
| Alfred Curry | Interior and Surface Physics of Hot, Evaporating Rocky Exoplanets | Dr Subhanjoy Mohanty |
| Yifan Ding | High redshift dusty star forming galaxies | Dr David Clements |
| Eleanor Gleave | Cosmology from the Cosmic Microwave Background with the Simons Observator | Prof Andrew Jaffe |
| Laura Harbach | Origin and evolution of exoplanet secondary atmospheres | Dr Subhanjoy Mohanty, Dr James Owen |
| Yordan Ignatov | Astrophysics and cosmology from the epoch of reionization with SKA and REACH | Dr Jonathan Pritchard |
| Lena Lenz | Searching for the most distant quasars | Dr Daniel Mortlock , Dr Boris Leistedt |
| Lucas Makinen | Prof Alan Heavens | |
| Andrew Martin | Cosmology from the Cosmic Microwave Background with the Simons Observat | Prof Andrew Jaffe |
| William Martin | The first quasars and super-massive black holes | Dr Daniel Mortlock |
| Carina Norregaard | Dr Jonathan Pritchard | |
| Ayushi Parmar | Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies Across Cosmic Time | Dr David Clements |
| Francesco Petri | Cosmology | Dr Boris Leistedt , Dr Daniel Mortlock |
| James Prideaux-Ghee | Bayesian analysis of the dynamic Universe | Dr Florent Leclercq , Prof Alan Heavens |
| Alfie Robinson | Protoplanetary Disc Structure and Evolution | Dr James Owen |
| Ethan Schreyer | Dr James Owen | |
| Kimeel Sooknunan | Applications of Machine Learning to 21cm Cosmology | Dr Daniel Mortlock, Dr Jonathan Pritchard, Dr Emma Chapman |
| Wei Tang | Dr David Clements | |
| James Thorne | Dr James Kirk, Dr Yvonne Unruh | |
| Morgan Williams | Dr Subhanjoy Mohanty | |
| Yoshie Yoshimoto | Dr Boris Leistedt | |
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Masters
We do not currently offer an Astrophysics Master's course, only PhDs (postgraduate research degrees). However, the Physics Department does offer other Master's courses.
Information for Undergraduates
Summer Internships
Summer Internships can only start after the summer teaching term has ended. In 2022 this ends on 1 July so the earliest date an internship can be considered for summer 2022 is 4 July.
Earlier dates are not possible because of staff UG teaching commitments.
The Astrophysics group does not have any internal funds to pay for summer internships. You must therefore seek funding yourself. If you are an Imperial student this might be via the UROP scheme. Other funding possibilities include the RAS internship schemes.
Register your interest in a UROP placement in the group
Imperial College UG Research Opportunities
Find out more about the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme.
Other UG Opportunities
Opportunities arise outside Imperial College for UGs to undertake research activities in astrophysics. These are listed here as and when they become available.
Work experience: placement opportunities for school students
The Physics Department at Imperial College has a central scheme for work placement students from schools. If you are interested in seeing what the work of a physics department, including the astrophysics group, is like during a placement, you can find out more on the Physics Outreach pages.