About the Project
Advanced Instrumentation Studentship: Moisture content measurement in crops using a novel Infrared hyperspectral imager.
Applications are invited for a 3.5 year fully funded PhD research studentship in the development of novel hyperspectral instrumentation to work with Dr. Cyril Bourgenot in the Department of Physics at Durham University. The project is associated with an EPSRC UKRI Innovation fellowship. The full time studentship, includes a stipend of £14,777 per year, fees and support for research costs and conference travel.
* Specific areas of interest include: Remote sensing, Hyperspectral imaging, Spectroscopy, Precision agriculture, optics, data processing.
* Aim: The aim of this doctoral research is to design and develop a novel hyperspectral imager using freeform gratings manufactured at Durham University Centre for Advanced Instrumentation, with the objective to measure the moisture content in bare soils and crops. Based on previous research and the group heritage in spectroscopy, the PhD candidate will investigate and evaluate effective algorithms to extract the moisture spectral signature in a range of UK soils and will participate in the design and validation of an airborne demonstrator.
The EPSRC project will be supervised by Dr Cyril Bourgenot at Durham University in partnership with Dr.Paul Green, Senior Research Scientist in the Earth Observation, Climate & Optical Group at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL).
* Research environment: The work location is shared between two physical sites, one of which is in the new Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics on the University science site in Durham and the other is at the North East Technology Park (NETPark), an internationally recognised location for science and technology companies, based about ten miles away in Sedgefield, Co. Durham. On both sites, you will work within a passionate and dynamic team of researchers, engineers and post graduate students.
* Required skills: Applicants should have or expect to attain at least an upper second class integrated masters or a first class bachelor’s degree in a related subject (e.g. Physics, Engineering). We are looking for a candidate who has a passion for the application of novel optical instrument design to real world problems and who can demonstrate self-motivated ingenuity, innovation, drive and creativity. Programming skills, optical manufacturing and metrology knowledges are desirable. Good team-working and communication skills are essential.
The closing date for applications is 28th June 2019. Please submit applications electronically via the Durham University, Department of Physics website https://www.dur.ac.uk/study/pg/apply/
The start date is October 1st 2019. Informal enquiries are welcome and should be directed to Dr. Cyril Bourgenot ([Email Address Removed]).
Due to funding requirements the post is only open to UK and EU students