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Research topics and projects

The Physics Department at Warwick offers postgraduate degree programmes leading to either a PhD or a MSc by Research. The intake of students is typically around 35 per year and we have a thriving postgraduate research community within the department. Current students from one of the research groups give their views on life in the Physics Department here.

The UK's research councils, principally the EPSRC and the STFC, are major funders of PhD studentships in the Department, along with the University and a wide range of other funding bodies. For more details about funding and scholarships, please see this page.

The Department actively contributes to Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) funded by the EPSRC and industrial partners, including the Modelling of Heterogeneous Systems (HetSys) CDT, Diamond Science and Technology and the Analytical Sciences doctoral training centres.

The research undertaken in the department covers the 6 broad areas below, which are described in more detail on the Research Group web pages. You are welcome to contact any potential supervisor directly to discuss PhD projects.

This is a full list of the PhD research projects that supervisors have identified for potential students. Self-funded students and students with external scholarships are welcome to apply for any research project: our funding page has full details on funding options for UK and international students. There are a limited number of PhD scholarships for outstanding UK students to work on any project identified on the full project list. International students can apply for support via the Chancellor's International Scholarships and other schemes.


 
Condensed Matter Physics
Filter PhD projects: Funded / all.

Theoretical and Computational Physics
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Medical and Biophysics
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Astronomy and Astrophysics 
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Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics
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Elementary Particle Physics
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Electronic properties of ferroelectric domain walls

Supervisor: Marios Hadjimichael

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months

Mon 26 Feb 2024, 16:54 | Tags: Condensed matter (funded)

Modelling charged-particle transport and heating in fusion plasmas

Supervisor: Dirk Gericke

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 48 months (EPSRC ICASE)

Thu 25 Jan 2024, 12:40 | Tags: CFSA (funded)

Wideband microwave spectrometry using quantum defects in diamond

Supervisor: Ben Green

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 48 months

Wed 20 Dec 2023, 12:18 | Tags: Condensed matter (funded)

Non-linear photoelectric processes in quantum paraelectric SrTiO3

Supervisor: Marin Alexe

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months

Mon 11 Dec 2023, 13:56 | Tags: Condensed matter (funded)

Imaging atomic-level electrochemistry in real-time using 2D material devices

Supervisor: Alex Robertson

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months

Fri 17 Nov 2
Tue 28 Nov 2023, 09:33 | Tags: Condensed matter (funded)

Modelling energy transport in the Solar corona

Supervisor: Tony Arber

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months (STFC)

Thu 23 Nov 2023, 11:49 | Tags: CFSA (funded)

Optimising robotic platforms for terahertz detection of cancer

Supervisor: Emma MacPherson

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months (EPSRC)


Clamp-on ultrasonic transducer arrays for flow measurement

Supervisor: Steve Dixon

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: This project is fully funded for 42 months (EPSRC)

Thu 16 Nov 2023, 16:52 | Tags: Condensed matter (funded)

2D magnetic materials: probing magneto-electronic coupling.

Supervisor: Neil Wilson

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: This project is fully funded for 42 months

Thu 16 Nov 2023, 16:49 | Tags: Condensed matter Condensed matter (funded)

Unconventional Superconductors

Supervisor: Martin Lees

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months (EPSRC)

Thu 16 Nov 2023, 16:48 | Tags: Condensed matter Condensed matter (funded)

Levitating microdiamonds towards a test of the quantum nature of gravity

Supervisor: Gavin Morley

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months

Thu 16 Nov 2023, 16:03 | Tags: Condensed matter (funded)

Polaritonic enhancement of metal halide perovskite photovoltaic performance

Supervisor: Adam Wright

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months (EPSRC)

Thu 16 Nov 2023, 15:54 | Tags: Condensed matter (funded)

The dynamic universe; variability in crowded fields

Supervisor: Dr Krzsztof Ulaczyk & Prof. Danny Steeghs

More details on this project.

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42-48 months

Wed 15 Nov 2023, 09:19 | Tags: Astronomy and Astrophysics (funded)

The dynamic universe; extragalactic transients and stellar explosions.

Supervisor: Prof. Danny Steeghs & Dr Joe Lyman

More details on this project.

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42-48 months

Wed 15 Nov 2023, 09:18 | Tags: Astronomy and Astrophysics (funded)

Seismic studies of solar and stellar magnetic activity

Supervisor: Anne-Marie Broomhall

More details on this project

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months (STFC)

Start date: September 2024

Tue 31 Oct 2023, 15:01 | Tags: CFSA (funded)

Elementary Particle Physics

A short overview of the project areas can be found on the group website. Enquires can be made to Dr. John Marshall (John.Marshall@warwick.ac.uk)

Areas of activity:

The Warwick EPP group is strongly involved in the ATLAS and LHCb experiments at the LHC (at CERN), and also in the field of neutrino physics. Within neutrino physics, we’re involved in the DUNE and MicroBooNE experiments (in the USA), the T2K and Hyper-K experiments (in Japan) and the JUNO experiment (in China). We’re also involved in a number of projects developing new detector technologies.

Funding:
PhD studentships (typically 42 months) are available. Enquiries, including queries on possible sources of funding, from all potential candidates are welcome.
Fri 27 Oct 2023, 10:00 | Tags: Particle physics (funded) PhD Particle physics

Quantifying space weather turbulence and extremes and risk at earth

Supervisor: Sandra Chapman

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024

Funding: The project is fully funded for 42 months

Mon 17 Oct 2022, 10:39 | Tags: CFSA (funded)

FIND-CDT

Mon 22 Jun 2020, 17:09 | Tags: Condensed matter (funded)

Innovative Design and Precision Characterization: Unleashing the Potential of Next-Gen Piezoelectric Thin Films for High-Speed Wireless Communication

Supervisor: Peng Wang

More details on this project

For further details please see How to apply (warwick.ac.uk)

Thu 22 Feb 2024, 12:36 | Tags: Condensed matter (funded) ARAP

Machine-learning-guided design of efficient sustainable materials for hydrogenation photocatalysis

Supervisor: Reinhard Maurer

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024
Funding: The project is fully funded for 48 months
Thu 21 Dec 2023, 14:53 | Tags: Theoretical and computational (funded)

Computational design of topological defects in graphene

Supervisor: Reinhard Maurer

More details on this project

Start date: September 2024
Funding: The project is fully funded for 48 months
Thu 21 Dec 2023, 14:41 | Tags: Theoretical and computational (funded)