PhD in Physical Geography
There are many opportunities for carrying out a PhD in Physical Geography in the School of Geographical Sciences, with several different funding routes.
A list of currently available projects is shown below. This list is not exhaustive, so if you have another idea or project in mind, please contact one of the supervisors listed below, other potential supervisors or the postgraduate admissions tutors to discuss and develop further.
NERC GW4 DTP Projects 2020
The application deadline is 1600 hours GMT Monday 6 January 2020 and interviews will take place between 10 and 21 February 2020. To apply for this programme, you must select 'Faculty of Science' and then 'NERC Great Western Four plus Doctoral Training Partnership (PhD)' within the online application form. You should refer to the project and supervisor in your application, indicate in the funding section that you will be funded by the GW4+ DTP, and choose the correct school of study. Please note that although an applicant may be successful in being nominated by a supervisor for a particular project, they are not guaranteed a studentship until they have been successful following an interview.
| Project title | Supervisor(s) |
|---|---|
| Oceans losing breath: is anthropogenic climate change to blame for recent ocean deoxygenation? | Dr Oliver Andrews |
| The impact of global warming on hurricane-induced storm surges in the Caribbean | Dr Rory Bingham |
| Modelling coupled human-water systems: Characterising human-water interactions and their impacts on future water scarcity | Dr Gemma Coxon |
| Estimating greenhouse gas emissions using the next generation of satellite observations | Dr Anita Ganesan |
| The temperature of our planet – modelling and understanding 500-million years of climate change | Professor Dan Lunt |
| Microbial life and carbon cycling in glaciers environments | Dr Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo |
| Advancing the study of photosynthetic life in extreme cryo-environments | Dr Chris Williamson |
Other PhD projects
These are suggested projects for which we currently have no funding. They would be ideal for holders of scholarships, or self-funded students.
| Project title | Supervisor(s) |
|---|---|
| Closing the Ocean Carbon Cycle | Professor Paul Valdes |
| Caves as a window on land-atmosphere coupling in the carbon cycle | Dr David Richards |
|
Evolution and diversity of novel marine nitrogen-fixing organisms and their impact on global climate |
Dr Fanny Monteiro |
| Developing regional scale hydrodynamic models | Dr Jeff Neal |
|
Desert dust and ancient oceans: Implications for climate and atmospheric CO2 |
Professor Dan Lunt |
|
The impacts of land use change on climate, data and model analysis |
Dr Jo House |
|
Using observations from space and the deep ocean to uncover the ocean's role in climate change |
Dr Rory Bingham |
| Atmospheric methane on the rise: investigating the drivers of methane’s abrupt changes | Dr Anita Ganesan |
| Hydrology and hydraulics of the Amazon floodplain | Professor Paul Bates |
| Current and future European flood risk | Professor Paul Bates |
| Palaeoenvironmental controls on the accumulation of hydrocarbon source rocks in Paratethys | Dr Rachel Flecker |
| Developing regional scale hydrodynamic models | Dr Jeff Neal |
| Exploring the Subglacial Biogeochemical Reactor and its Role in Global Biogeochemical Cycles and Climate | Professor Martyn Tranter |