PhD Studentship Opportunities

  • Each year we have positions available for PhD study in the group. These are funded by various sources such as STFC, QMUL, CSC, DISCnet, but we also welcome applications from students with their own funding.
  • The PhD program takes 3-4 years, involving a specialised project in one of our research areas. The QMUL Doctoral College offers comprehensive training courses and support throughout the program.
  • See below and the webpages of David Burgess, Christopher Chen or David Tsikilauri for available projects and please get in touch with the relevant advisor(s) if you are interested.
  • See here for details of the application process, including the relevant deadlines (usually in January each year).
  • The School of Physics and Astronomy runs an open day for prospective PhD students, usually in December. See the school's PhD Pages for the latest info, including FAQ about PhD study at Queen Mary.

Projects Starting in 2020:

Parker Solar ProbeThe Parker Solar Probe spacecraft. Image credit: NASA. Exploring the Sun's Plasma Environment with the Parker Solar Probe Spacecraft
Supervisor: Dr Christopher Chen
The Sun's atmosphere, the solar corona, remains one of the last major areas of the solar system to be directly explored by a spacecraft, but over the next few years this will change with the NASA Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission. This spacecraft is undergoing a series of orbits around the Sun that take it closer in to reach a final distance of less than 10 solar radii from the surface and at QMUL we are members of the PSP science team. The solar corona, and the solar wind that is produced, are in a plasma state, and there many aspects of the plasma physics in this environment that remain to be understood - for example the nature of plasma turbulence, magnetic reconnection, heating, and plasma kinetic behaviour. This project will involve the analysis of data from Parker Solar Probe to study the nature of these processes in this new environment, as well as any new unexpected discoveries, and the potential role that they play in major unanswered questions of plasma astrophysics, such as coronal heating and solar wind acceleration. Although primarily an observational project, there will also be a strong link to theory and numerical simulations. As the first PSP data are starting to be returned, now is an excellent time to get involved in this exciting and historic mission.

Parker Solar ProbeA supernova remnant with shock wave. Image credit: NASA. Particle Acceleration in Shocks and Turbulence in Astrophysics
Supervisor: Dr David Burgess
Energetic particles are a ubiquitous feature of many astrophysical systems. Cosmic rays permeate the universe and are thought to be accelerated mainly at the shocks driven by supernova remnants. Shocks are formed in the intra-galactic medium during mergers of galaxy clusters. In these collisions, synchrotron radiation from electrons with relativistic energies show as some of the largest observable coherent features on the radio sky. Nearer to home, shocks observed in the solar wind are always associated with accelerated and nonthermal particles. There are still many puzzles about the processes leading to particle acceleration. In particular, the interplay between shocks and turbulence is increasingly recognized to be important. This project will use a combination of spacecraft observations and computer simulations to advance our understanding of particle acceleration in astrophysics. In particular, large-scale plasma simulations will be used to make comparisons with data from shocks in space plasmas. These results will then be used in an astrophysical context to determine the basic processes at work in, for example, solar flares and galaxy cluster mergers.