Environmental Chemistry PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships in the UK

The University of Manchester Department of Chemistry

Understanding shale rock swelling for energy systems: novel integrated modelling and experimental approaches

A fully funded PhD position is available in the group of Professor Carbone (Department of Chemistry) and Professor Taylor (Department of Earth Science) at the University of Manchester starting from September 2024. Read more

Supervisors: Dr P Carbone, Prof K Taylor

31 May 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

University of York Department of Chemistry

Direct analysis ion mobility mass spectrometry for rapid profiling of edible fats and oils to combat food adulteration

Background. Food safety and authenticity are generally taken for granted, yet food adulteration is one of the most significant challenges faced in the UK, with the total impact of food crime on the UK estimated to be between £409 million and £1.96 billion per year [Food Standards Agency, 2023]. Read more

Supervisor: Dr J Mosely

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

University of Liverpool School of Engineering

Engineered nanomaterials for safe sustainable water purification

Access to clean drinking water and sanitation has seen substantial progress in recent time, however there is still a large part of the global population, that live mostly in rural settings, that lack this basic necessity. Read more

Supervisor: Prof RA D'Sa

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Ocean’s Methane sensing using novel surface plasmon resonance technology

Supervisory Team: Rand Ismaeel, Matthew Mowlem. Project description. Ocean monitoring is a critical need, and it is closely related to human survival. Read more

Supervisor: Dr R Ismaeel

Year round applications PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Greenhouse Gas Detection Using Silicon Photonics Platform

Supervisory Team: Rand Ismaeel, Milos Nedeljkovic . Project Description. This exciting multidisciplinary PhD project aims to develop a new class of marine sensors based on cutting-edge MID-IR silicon photonics research. Read more

Supervisor: Dr R Ismaeel

Year round applications PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Advanced Sensors for Planetary Missions & Astrophysics

Supervisory Team: Austin Taranta, Natalie Wheeler, Radan Slavik, Francesco Poletti. Project description. PhD Opportunity. Advanced sensors for planetary missions & astrophysics. Read more

Supervisor: Dr A Taranta

Year round applications PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Climate-Optimised Aircraft Design

Supervisory Team: Edward Richardson; Ali Elham. Project description. The condensation trail (contrail) emissions of future low-CO2 aircraft will be assessed as part of a climate-optimised aircraft design methodology. Read more

Supervisor: Dr E.S. Richardson

31 August 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

Aberdeen University School of Engineering

Fluid flow in porous media with application to CCUS and energy storage

These projects are open to students worldwide, but have no funding attached. Therefore, the successful applicant will be expected to fund tuition fees at the relevant level (home or international) and any applicable additional research costs. Read more

Supervisors: Dr A Sharifi, Dr R Rafati

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Aberdeen University School of Engineering

Experimental study of ion transport in subsurface media for renewable energy storage

These projects are open to students worldwide, but have no funding attached. Therefore, the successful applicant will be expected to fund tuition fees at the relevant level (home or international) and any applicable additional research costs. Read more

Supervisors: Dr R Rafati, Dr A Sharifi

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Aberdeen University School of Engineering

CO2 catalytic conversion using renewable hydrogen sources

These projects are open to students worldwide, but have no funding attached. Therefore, the successful applicant will be expected to fund tuition fees at the relevant level (home or international) and any applicable additional research costs. Read more

Supervisors: Dr I Graca, Dr C Fernandez-Martin, Dr A McCue

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

University of Edinburgh School of Engineering

Determining the water retention behaviour of unsaturated hydrophobic granular soils

Hydrophobic granular soils are under investigation for constructing roads on frost-susceptible soils in China and the US, in preference to cementitious stabilisation. Read more

Supervisor: Dr C Beckett

1 December 2024 PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD in Predicting the environmental degradation of plastics

Supervisors: Prof A Dove, Prof S Krause

Understanding how plastics and polymers degrade in the environment is an important sustainability target. Our work in this area uses innovative analytical techniques and simulated environments to understand how specific plastics degrade in different environments. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Bioaugmentation to enhance biological phosphorus removal from wastewater

Supervisory Team. Yongqiang Liu. Project description. Phosphorus is an indispensable element for sustaining life, yet it is finite and non-renewable. Read more

Supervisor: Dr Y Liu

31 August 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Fouling control and cleaning of membrane for water treatment

Supervisory Team. Yongqiang Liu. Project description. Globally, water scarcity is a pressing issue, affecting between two and three billion people worldwide, as reported by the recent UN World Water Development report. Read more

Supervisor: Dr Y Liu

31 August 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Sustainable production of lithium using battery materials

Supervisory Team. Prof Richard Wills, Prof. Nuria Garcia-Araez. Project description. The accelerating growth of the battery market requires major advances in the production of lithium for the supply of materials to manufacture the batteries. Read more

Supervisor: Dr R Wills

31 August 2024 PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

Design and engineering of peptides and proteins to create artificial metalloenzymes

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

The Rhys lab is an exciting new lab looking to recruit new students to design and engineer peptides and proteins for new applications (rhyslab.com). Read more

Supervisor: Dr G Rhys

The University of Manchester Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Children’s cognitive development: how is it affected by traffic-related air pollution in and around schools?

There is evidence that air pollution can have a negative impact on children’s cognitive development (Gartland et al., 2022). Read more

Supervisors: Dr NG Gartland, Prof M van Tongeren, Dr T Bannan, Dr AH Hood

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Mechanochemical Preparation of Biodegradable Pharmaceuticals

Supervisor: Dr D C Crawford

Twin-screw extrusion (TSE) has been demonstrated as an excellent means of industrialising mechanochemistry (instigation of a chemical reaction by mechanical energy, in the absence of solvents), overcoming the barriers involved in batch processing (such as ball milling) such as scalability and reaction temperature control. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Dynamic behaviours of metal-organic frameworks and their guests

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Self-funded applicants are invited to join our vibrant research community at the University of Birmingham's School of Chemistry for a PhD position focused on functional Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Read more

Supervisor: Dr T Easun

PhD in Chemistry: Applications of main group Lewis acids in synthetic organic chemistry

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Applications of main group Lewis acids in synthetic organic chemistry. This project will investigate the use of boron or aluminium Lewis acids in transformations typically catalysed by transition metals. Read more

Supervisor: Prof R Melen

Three-Dimensional Microfluidics for High Throughput Reactions and Bioassays

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

High-throughput reactions and bioassays allow cost-effective testing of large libraries of bio/chemical molecules for drug discovery, disease diagnosis, and industrial biotechnology. Read more

Supervisor: Dr R Gupta

Biosensor for Point-of-Care DNA Detection

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

DNA detection is needed for a range of applications including clinical diagnostics and environmental monitoring. As target DNA is often present in very low concentrations, it is typically amplified using methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) [1], before detection. Read more

Supervisor: Dr R Gupta

University of Liverpool Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics

Sniffing for Answers: Rapid Profiling and Classification of Volatile Organic Compounds

Applications are invited for a self-funded PhD within the Mass Spectrometry and Instrumentation research group, www.liverpool.ac.uk/mass-spec. Read more

Supervisor: Prof S Maher

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

PhD in Chemistry: Developing innovative organofluorine chemistry

Supervisor: Dr M Tredwell

PhD in Chemistry - Developing innovative organofluorine chemistry. Dr Matthew Tredwell is looking for a PhD student to develop innovative organofluorine chemistry. Read more

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

The University of Manchester Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Developing (bio)remediation options for high pH radionuclide contaminated land and water

The management of radioactively contaminated land is a global “grand challenge”. In the UK this represents a £multi-billion project that will take many decades to complete. Read more

Supervisors: Prof J Lloyd, Prof K Morris, Prof S Shaw

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

PhD in Chemistry - Microwave assisted synthesis of doped semiconductors for photocatalytic applications

Year round applications PhD Research Project Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Microwave assisted synthesis of doped semiconductors for photocatalytic applications. Read more

Supervisor: Dr J Edwards

PhD studentship in in situ imaging and diffraction of dual-phase zeolite composites for nuclear waste remediation.

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Applications are sought for a PhD project under the supervision of Dr Phoebe Allan at the University of Birmingham, Dr Sharif Ahmed and Dr Joe Hriljac at Diamond Light Source, and Dr Tom Carey at the National Nuclear Laboratory. Read more

Supervisor: Dr P Allan

The University of Manchester Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Where has all of the carbon gone? Understanding the molecular mechanisms of long-term soil carbon capture

Soils, while unglamorous, form the basis of the terrestrial biosphere and are ultimately the source of the majority of the food that we eat, yet fundamental aspects of how soils form and how they store carbon are poorly understood. Read more

Supervisors: Prof D Cameron, Dr S Nixon

Year round applications PhD Research Project Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

Brunel University London Environmental Science

Sustainable products & processes - help industry ditch the plastic and toxic chemicals

Material and energy used for making products can have significant adverse environmental, health and safety and or socioeconomic impacts. Read more

Supervisor: Dr G Troisi

Year round applications PhD Research Project Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)