NERC-funded PhD studentships

The Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet (SSCP) Doctoral Training Partnership integrates six host partners and a number of business and policy sector partners, to offer an exciting programme that trains and inspires the next generation of environmental experts and leaders to tackle some of the toughest challenges of our time. The SSCP is funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council and based at Imperial College London.

Available projects

View projects starting in October 2022

For a full list of these, and other projects, with links to detailed descriptions, information on eligibility and instructions on how to apply, please see SSCP studentship opportunities.

Closing date for applications: midday (12pm GMT) Friday, 7 January 2022.

The Roth scholarship scheme is funded by the Department of Mathematics and named after Klaus Friedrich Roth.

Key facts:

• Numbers: normally 4 full scholarships per year
• The award covers 3.5 years: tuition fees + stipend + research training costs
• Eligibility: Home, EU and Overseas applicants*
• Selection criteria: the selection panel looks for the best academic performance at undergraduate and postgraduate levels; strong endorsement from two referees; as well as published academic papers and academic prizes the applicant might have won.
• How to apply: all applications are automatically screened for this scheme at assessment time. It does not require a separate application.
• Outcome: the panel makes decisions at the end of each month (from January to May each year); applicants are normally informed about the scholarship award together with the offer of a place on the programme.

* Overseas applicants might be awarded this scholarship to cover part of tuition fees (Home/EU amount); or might be given joint fund in combination with another scheme (subject to availability).

Doctoral Training Partnership supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Key facts:

• Numbers: subject to annual EPSRC allocation. There have been an average of 8 scholarships per year in the past 5 years.
• The award covers up to 3.5 years: tuition fees + stipend + research training costs
• Eligibility: UK Residency, mainly in line with Home/EU fee status classification - limited relaxation of student eligibility requirements for non-UK resident applicants*
• Selection criteria: the selection panel looks for the best academic performance at undergraduate and postgraduate levels; strong endorsement from two referees; as well as published academic papers and academic prizes the applicant might have won.
• How to apply: all applications are automatically screened for this scheme at assessment time. It does not require a separate application.
• Outcome: the panel makes decisions at the end of each month (from January to May each year); applicants are normally informed about the scholarship award together with the offer of a place on the programme.

* EU nationals not resident in the UK are normally eligible for fee support only (EPSRC DTP pays fees and research costs but not stipend). The most outstanding applicants from EU countries, who do not meet the residency requirements for full studentship, are offered a stipend by the Department of Mathematics (subject to availability).

* Normally, one outstanding overseas applicant per year might be offered this scholarship (subject to College total grant allocation). The Department of Mathematics will cover the difference between home and overseas tuition fees.

All applicants are authomatically considered for this scheme. No extra form is required.

Please visit the President's PhD Scholarships page for full information on the scheme, including applications deadlines and dates for the communication of outcome.

Please visit the Schrödinger Scholarship page for further information on this scheme.

Key facts:

• Numbers: 1 full scholarship per year
• The award covers 3.5 years: tuition fees + stipend + research training costs
• Eligibility: Home, EU and Overseas applicants*
• Selection criteria: the selection panel looks for the best academic performance at undergraduate and postgraduate levels; strong endorsement from two referees; as well as published academic papers and academic prizes the applicant might have won.
• How to apply: all applications are automatically screened for this scheme at assessment time. It does not require a separate application.
• Outcome: the panel makes decisions at the end of each month (from January to May each year); applicants are normally informed about the scholarship award together with the offer of a place on the programme.

* Overseas applicants might be awarded this scholarship to cover their tuition fees. The Department of Mathematics will cover the stipend and the research training costs.

Imperial College London and the China Scholarship Council (CSC) have created a scholarship programme to enable talented Chinese students to undertake a PhD programme at Imperial.

It does not require a separate application in the first instance. All Chinese applicants who have submitted a regular application by the end of January will automatically be screened for this scheme at assessment time.

If the proposed supervisor decides to nominate an applicant to this scheme, the applicant will then be contacted to consent their nomination to the selecting panel.

Please read the CSC Imperial Scholarship page for full information on this scheme.

• Closes: 20 January 2021 or earlier if position is filled
• Funding for: UK students and NATO eligible country students.
• Funding amount: The studentship is for 4 years and will provide full coverage of Home tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of approximately £17,285
• Hours: Full Time

The research project

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship under the supervision of Dr M. S. Mughal in the general area of laminar-turbulent transition prediction on aircraft aerodynamics. The project involves research at the cutting edge of the field, with the objectives of developing improved physics correct models of how laminar boundary layer flows undergo tripping to turbulence on complex aircraft flowfields. The research represents an exciting and ideal opportunity for the right candidate in establishing a future career involving applied mathematics and scientific computation. The student shall make use of a pre-existing transition prediction toolset to make customisations, improvements and make contributions to advancing the subject. Computational aspects shall be developed using FORTRAN 95 and Python 3.

Pre-requisites

The ideal candidate will have a strong (1st class or 2:1) degree (MEng, BSc, MSc or equivalent) in Mathematics, Aerodynamics and/or Physics. Applications for this studentship are accepted from Home and NATO eligible country students only.

Key details

The PhD studentship will be fully funded for 4 years and will cover Home tuition fees plus the standard maintenance stipend of £17,285, per annum. This amount will increase every year with inflation. The start date is ASAP. The research work will involve travel in the UK and collaborations abroad, to report research progress in meetings with applied aerodynamics, experimental and numerical specialists from a variety of international labs and institutions. The research will primarily be undertaken in the Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London. The student could well be offered possibility of placement with the industrial sponsor during the research period, subject to adequate security clearance.

Apply

Please send a cover letter, CV and undergraduate/masters transcript(s), to Dr Mughal. The cover letter should explain your motivation for applying and suitability for the project. After having been selected by the supervisor, candidates will then submit their application following the standard College on-line application procedure.

Informal enquiries

Please email Dr M. S. Mughal, Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London. 

Closing date

20 January 2021 or earlier if position is filled

Imperial College joint supervisors

• Professor G.A. Pavliotis (Mathematics)
• Professor Pierre Degond (Mathematics)

This PhD studentship is part of a joint project between Imperial College and the French CNRS jointly led by Pierre Degond (Imperial College London) and Louis Casteilla (Stromalab Laboratory) entitled « REGEN: Induced self-organized tissue regeneration : a model-data framework ». This project aims to explore the different types of self-organization that prevail in healthy and pathological tissues through the combined use of sophisticated mathematical models and high quality data. This project is part of the activity of the joint CNRS-Imperial College International Research Laboratory Abraham de Moivre.

The project

Specifically, in this PhD project, we will describe the tissue as a complex social organization involving different types of agents, such as various categories of cells, fibers and networks which interact one with each other through complex rules. We will start with a multi-agent system approach which has proven successful in the modelling of social systems. Then we will develop mean-field models and view the various interactions between the agents through the viewpoints of control theory and mean-field games. The goal is to decipher the processes that transform a healthy tissue into a pathological one through the concept of phasetransitions triggered by positive feedback loops and to find the ways to prevent these transitions by using concepts from optimal control theory for PDEs. Recent developments in the study of phase transitions and of fluctuations for mean field PDEs, as well as in the development of optimal control methodologies for such systems, will be used.

Within this project, the student will develop a large array of expertise in modelling, mathematical analysis, numerical simulation and applications to life sciences. According to the taste of the student, the project may concentrate more on one particular aspect, but it is expected that all aspects will be covered with different levels of detail during the course of the PhD. Funding is available to support the PhD student’s interactions with the team of biologists in France.

Pre-requisites

Candidates will have a Msc in Applied or Pure Mathematics or Physics, will need to produce strong records during all their under and post graduate studies. They will need to demonstrate scientific maturity and independence, as well as a strong interest in research at the interfacte between mathematics and modelling in life sciences. Applications for this studentship are accepted from home and EU students only. The successful candidate will be asked to meet Imperial College’s English language requirements.

Key info

The studentship is for 3.5 years and the stipend is around £17,560 per annum. The start date is 01/10/2021.

Apply

To apply, you can follow the standard College on-line application procedure.

The deadline for applications is: 12pm (GMT) 31 January 2021

Contact

For more information, please contact:

• Pierre Degond
• Greg Pavliotis

References

• D. Peurichard, … , P. Degond, Simple mechanical cues could explain adipose tissue morphology, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 429 (2017), pp. 61-81 (open access).
• M.G. Delgadino, R. Gvalani, G.A. Pavliotis On the diffusive-mean field limit for weakly interacting diffusions exhibiting phase transitions. Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, to appear 2021.
• G.A. Pavliotis et al Long-time behaviour and phase transitions for the McKean-Vlasov equation on the torus. Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, 235 (2020) 635-690.