Researchers and students at Bristol are involved in cutting-edge research in areas such as particle physics and quantum photonics, and in international collaborations such as the LHC. Teaching is exceptionally well provided for, with more than 15 new lecturers appointed in recent years. You will be taught in a world class research environment by specialists working in many different fields across the discipline.
My research is carried out in the Correlated Electron Systems group and my PhD is based around the study of superconductivity with neutrons.
I often get to travel to world-leading facilities in France and Germany as well as trips to the Rutherford-Appleton Lab near Oxford to carry out my experiments. Experiments have been a great opportunity for me to meet and collaborate with many talented and committed researchers from around the world.
Living in Bristol has been a fantastic experience. The city has many diverse areas and a lot of interesting things to do, as well as good transport links (ie escape routes). This can become especially important during times of high stress – an inevitable part of PhD study. The University itself has a very strong sense of community and this is especially true of the Physics Department. In my opinion, for a PhD student living in Bristol is near-ideal.
I am working in the Astrophysics group doing my PhD in observational cosmology.
The great thing is that I am using world class observatories such as the 32-m Torun telescope in Poland, and the 110-m Green Bank Telescope (GBT) of the NRAO located in West Virginia USA, to obtain the data for my experiment.
Working with such facilities enables me to gain valuable skills and experience which are important.
One thing about being a graduate student in the Bristol area is that you are living in a city that is easily accessible, with the University being in the city.
