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Prof C D F Rogers
Dr D Hunt
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
A bursaried PhD studentship is being offered, creating an exciting opportunity to study alongside an EPSRC-funded research project — Liveable Cities: Transforming the Engineering of Cities for Global and Societal Wellbeing (see www.liveablecities.org.uk).
Liveable Cities is a multi-disciplinary project, bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines—social science, engineering, geography, design, business management, environmental science and urban studies. It consists of five research strands (termed Research Challenges) addressing the following questions:
1. How can one undertake an urban analysis clustered to allow cities to be viewed through an Environmental Lens, a Social Lens and an Economy & Governance Lens, and then integrated to combine all relevant disciplines and cover the complete spread of perspectives?
2. How do we ensure that radical engineering solutions take into account the human dimensions of living and working in a city? How do we assess quality of life, wellbeing and citizen aspirations, and translate them into design criteria for transforming the engineering of cities? How can our understanding of human and organisational aspirations and behaviour inform engineering solutions to deliver low carbon living?
3. How do we address energy consumption to meet low carbon targets? How do we address infrastructure „lock in‟ to improve the carbon performance of the urban environment? How do we engender and embed low carbon pathways and engineering solutions for demand reduction and power generation in cities?
4. How to transform the engineering process through radical revisioning of the world and radicalising the engineering approach to shift solutions from the mundane „what we can do now‟ to the extraordinary „what we will do then‟.
5. How do we integrate the outcomes of Research Challenges1-4 to form an engineering strategy and provide a pathway to implementation, thus embracing finance, policy, regulation and governance?
The ideal candidate will wish to frame their PhD studies to complement the issues being addressed by the Liveable Cities project, including issues related to sustainability, carbon reduction and the built environment including engineering-focussed drivers (eg. energy, waste and water); the process of urban design and development including associated tensions and trade-offs especially in relation to urban sustainability; and toolkits related to the provision of low carbon urban environments (e.g. carbon footprinting, ecological footprinting, material flow analysis, lifecycle analysis, Eurostat) The candidate should be seeking a PhD in civil engineering or similar.
Informal enquiries can be made to Joanne Leach via email at: [Email Address Removed].
Liveable Cities is a multi-disciplinary project, bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines—social science, engineering, geography, design, business management, environmental science and urban studies. It consists of five research strands (termed Research Challenges) addressing the following questions:
1. How can one undertake an urban analysis clustered to allow cities to be viewed through an Environmental Lens, a Social Lens and an Economy & Governance Lens, and then integrated to combine all relevant disciplines and cover the complete spread of perspectives?
2. How do we ensure that radical engineering solutions take into account the human dimensions of living and working in a city? How do we assess quality of life, wellbeing and citizen aspirations, and translate them into design criteria for transforming the engineering of cities? How can our understanding of human and organisational aspirations and behaviour inform engineering solutions to deliver low carbon living?
3. How do we address energy consumption to meet low carbon targets? How do we address infrastructure „lock in‟ to improve the carbon performance of the urban environment? How do we engender and embed low carbon pathways and engineering solutions for demand reduction and power generation in cities?
4. How to transform the engineering process through radical revisioning of the world and radicalising the engineering approach to shift solutions from the mundane „what we can do now‟ to the extraordinary „what we will do then‟.
5. How do we integrate the outcomes of Research Challenges1-4 to form an engineering strategy and provide a pathway to implementation, thus embracing finance, policy, regulation and governance?
The ideal candidate will wish to frame their PhD studies to complement the issues being addressed by the Liveable Cities project, including issues related to sustainability, carbon reduction and the built environment including engineering-focussed drivers (eg. energy, waste and water); the process of urban design and development including associated tensions and trade-offs especially in relation to urban sustainability; and toolkits related to the provision of low carbon urban environments (e.g. carbon footprinting, ecological footprinting, material flow analysis, lifecycle analysis, Eurostat) The candidate should be seeking a PhD in civil engineering or similar.
Informal enquiries can be made to Joanne Leach via email at: [Email Address Removed].
Funding Notes
The total award is £3,732 fees plus £13,590 stipend.
Project supervisors
Career overview
Professor Chris Rogers graduated in Civil Engineering from the University of Leeds in 1979. He gained industrial experience as a graduate engineer in a structural engineering consultancy, working as a resident engineer monitoring ground works on multiple sites, and as a site engineer with Mowlem Tunnelling on the Carsington Dam Aqueduct Tunnel. This practical experience led to his chartered engineer status. In 1982, he joined the University of Nottingham as a Research Assistant, where he pursued his doctorate in buried flexible pipes. He subsequently lectured at Nottingham and Loughborough Universities before joining the University of Birmingham in 1998 as a Professor of Geotechnical Engineering. Professor Rogers has a diverse research portfolio focused on infrastructure engineering and future cities. His work includes trenchless technology, buried pipes, and road foundations, leading significant research programmes such as Mapping and Assessing the Underworld, which addresses the challenges of locating and assessing subsurface pipelines and cables. He has also researched robotics for streetworks, including the development of surface-mounted and drone robots for road structure assessment and repair, as well as swarms of miniature robots for pipeline condition assessment. He is a founding member of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC) and serves as its Director of Research Integration. He leads the £28 million UKCRIC National Buried Infrastructure Facility, which houses advanced laboratories and testing facilities. His extensive research into future cities has produced methodologies supporting a new Theory of Change for urban systems, focusing on sustainability, resilience, and wellbeing. Professor Rogers has chaired the Institution of Civil Engineers’ Research, Development & Innovation Panel and was a member of the Lead Expert Group for the UK Government''s Foresight Future of Cities project. He has secured over £50 million in research grants, supervised more than 50 research students and assistants, and published over 150 refereed journal papers and 180 conference papers. His expertise lies in applying systems thinking to enhance the sustainability and resilience of urban infrastructure.
Research interests
Professor Chris Rogers'' research focuses on sustainability and resilience in utility service provision, underground space usage, geotechnical processes, and urban engineering. His work includes the exploration of trenchless technology, buried pipes, and road foundations, leading significant research programmes such as Mapping and Assessing the Underworld, which addresses the challenges of locating and assessing subsurface pipelines and cables. He is involved in robotics for streetworks, including projects like Self-Repairing Cities, which utilises surface-mounted and drone robots for road structure assessment and repair, and Pipebots, which employs miniature robots for pipeline condition assessment. In collaboration with economists, he has explored infrastructure system interdependencies and alternative business models through the iBUILD initiative. He is a founding member of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC) and serves as its Director of Research Integration, overseeing the £28m UKCRIC National Buried Infrastructure Facility. His extensive research on future cities has concentrated on sustainability, resilience, liveability, and smartness, leading to methodologies that support a new Theory of Change for infrastructure and urban systems. Notably, he led the Urban Futures consortium, developing a methodology to test city system resilience under extreme future scenarios, and the Liveable Cities programme, which evaluates urban performance in relation to societal and planetary wellbeing. Professor Rogers is also investigating novel urban design approaches to enhance health and wellbeing, integrating urban diagnostics, systems thinking, and transdisciplinary practices. His past research includes the structural performance of flexible pipes in various contexts, trenchless technologies, chemical stabilisation of clay soils, and the assessment of road and railway foundations. He has been awarded over £50 million in grants, supervised more than 50 research students, and published extensively in refereed journals and conference proceedings.
Geotechnical Engineering
Infrastructure Engineering
Future Cities
Sustainability
Resilience
Urban Systems
Trenchless Technology
Buried Infrastructure
Robotics
Urban Diagnostics
Smart Cities
Health and Wellbeing
Soil Mechanics
Pipeline Condition Assessment
Urban Metabolism
Transdisciplinarity
Critical Infrastructure
Urban Futures
Environmental Value
Utility Service Provision
Chemical Stabilisation of Soils
Road Foundations
Urban Regeneration
Systems Thinking
Policy Development
Career overview
Dr Dexter V.L. Hunt obtained both his MEng (Hons) degree and PhD from the University of Birmingham in 2000 and 2005, respectively. His PhD research focused on improving predictive methods for ground movements associated with multiple tunnel construction, which has been globally cited. From 2003 to 2012, Dr Hunt worked on various multi-million-pound interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary grants, advancing through positions from research associate to Principal Investigator. In 2011, he secured a Marie Curie scholarship for visiting scholar Nikolai Bobylev. In 2012, Dr Hunt was awarded a Birmingham Fellowship, allowing him to continue his research for an additional four years, and he became a full-time Lecturer in 2016. His specialisation lies in Underground and Sustainable Construction. Dr Hunt has been active in the fields of sustainability and underground construction since 2003, conducting research and publishing on various themes, including energy, water, materials, transportation, asset management, utility infrastructure, sustainability assessment, tunnel construction, urban futures, urban metabolism, and waste. He has authored over 120 publications, including more than 50 in refereed international journals, and has received accolades such as the Trevithick and Asset Management Awards for best paper. His h-index is 23, with an i-10 index of 44, and he has been cited over 1700 times, with a significant portion of citations occurring in the last five years. Dr Hunt serves on the Editorial Board of two journals and has organised and presented at numerous national and international conferences and workshops. He is also a regular referee for 14 international journals. He has supervised 18 doctoral students, with 10 having completed their degrees, and has examined 20 higher degrees. Dr Hunt has over ten years of teaching experience at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, leading modules in Underground Construction, Sustainable Construction, Geotechnics, and Geotechnical Asset Management. His qualifications include a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of Birmingham, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and membership in the Institute of Civil Engineers. Dr Hunt has been involved in various advisory groups and steering committees related to civil engineering and tunnelling.
Research interests
Dr Hunt''s research focuses on Underground and Sustainable Construction. He has been active in the field of sustainability and underground construction since 2003, exploring a range of themes including Energy, Water, Materials, Transportation, Asset Management, Utility Infrastructure, Sustainability Assessment, Tunnel Construction, Urban Futures, Urban Metabolism, and Waste. His globally cited PhD work improved predictive methods for ground movements associated with multiple tunnel construction. Dr Hunt has authored over 120 publications, including more than 50 in refereed international journals, and has received awards for best papers in journals such as the Trevithick and Asset Management Awards. His h-index is 23, with significant citations in high-impact journals like Global Environmental Change. His research also includes methodologies for assessing sustainability in urban development processes, risk analysis for infrastructure systems, and the integration of sustainability into urban planning. He has been involved in major research projects such as the £6.3M Liveable Cities programme and the £3.1 million Sustainable Regeneration project, contributing to the development of tools and guidelines for sustainable urban infrastructure.
Sustainability
Underground Construction
Urban Infrastructure
Ground Movements
Tunnel Construction
Resource Security
Urban Metabolism
Waste Management
Energy Systems
Water Resource Management
Circular Economy
Resilience Assessment
Geotechnics
Sustainable Materials
Infrastructure Resilience
Urban Futures
Sustainability Assessment
Asset Management
Utility Infrastructure
Environmental Engineering
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