Physical Science PhD topics
The Department of Geography and Scott Polar Research Institute are pleased to be active and successful participants in the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Cambridge Climate, Life and Earth (C-CLEAR) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP)
Prospective students who wish to apply for an advertised project are asked to browse the DTP webpages and identify the project or projects that they wish to apply for.
The DTP has divided all its PhD projects into three themes. Members of the Department of Geography and SPRI have projects advertised in all three themes.
From the DTP webpages, you can search: 1) by broad theme (Climate Change and Environmental Processes, Biology and Conservation or Solid Earth and Geological Hazards); 2) by staff member/department (Staff Directory); or 3) by searching for keyword (e.g. 'Geography' or 'Antarctica').
To help you, we provide links to all the PhD topics involving Geography/SPRI supervisors below.
You may also choose your own topic that relates to the research interests of any member of the Physical Geography/SPRI staff, and that may also be suitable and eligible for funding by the DTP.
Further information on the application process is provided via the DTP webpages, the Geography Department webpages and the University Postgraduate Admissions pages. The deadline to be considered for DTP funding is 7 January 2021, which includes references.
PhD topic listing
Biology and Conservation theme
- BC203: *Priority CASE Project* Deforestation dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa: combining Earth Observation and socio-economic data to understand unregulated land use change (Lead Supervisor: Emily R. Lines, Geography)
- BC220: Species matters: impacts of species diversity on ecosystem responses to environmental change (Lead Supervisor: Andrew Friend, Geography)
- BC221: Plant growth and the global carbon cycle (Lead Supervisor: Andrew D. Friend, Geography)
- BC237: Novel remote sensing to understand the structure, function and future of wet woodland in the UK (Lead Supervisor: Emily R. Lines, Geography)
- BC238: Geodiversity controls on European forests (Lead Supervisor: Emily R. Lines)
Climate Change and Environmental Processes theme
- CE201: *Priority CASE Project* Gas ash-particle separation and the role of particle aggregation in volcanic plumes (Lead Supervisor: Michael Herzog)
- CE206: Climate and societal impacts of large volcanic eruptions (Lead Supervisor: Ulf Buentgen)
- CE207: Linking beaver population dynamics to ecological regime shifts in northern Canada (Lead Supervisor: Ulf Buentgen)
- CE209: North-South Asymmetries in the Polar Atmosphere (Co Supervisor: Michael Herzog)
- CE210: Will forests be effective nature-based solutions as the world's climate changes? (Co Supervisors: Ulf Büntgen, Emily Lines)
- CE214: Health and climate impacts of volcanic aerosols emitted through continuous degassing (Co Supervisor: Anja Schmidt)
- CE217: Improving parametrizations for convection in climate models (Lead Supervisor: Michael Herzog, Geography)
- CE219: Climate clusters: using interpretable machine learning to detangle the dynamical and biogeochemical structures of the climate system (Co Supervisor: Francesco Muschitiello)
- CE220: What are the atmospheric drivers of melt on George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctica? (Co Supervisors: Ian Willis, Neil Arnold)
- CE221: Ice sheets, fans and drifts: how glacial-marine processes and climate change have built the West Antarctic continental margin (Co Supervisor: Julian Dowdeswell)
- CE222: Machine Learning for past climate reconstruction: Identifying AMOC variations using proxy-climate fingerprints (Lead Supervisor: Francesco Muschitiello)
- CE223: Do extra-terrestrial impacts offer global stratigraphical markers? (Co Supervisor: Christine Lane)
- CE227: Volcanic and anthropogenic signals in the ocean (Lead Supervisor: Anja Schmidt)
- CE228: Climatic and societal impacts of Icelandic volcanism (Lead Supervisor: Anja Schmidt)
- CE240: Surface ponds on debris-covered glaciers, High Mountain Asia (Lead Supervisor: Ian Willis; Co Supervisor Neil Arnold)
- CE242: Sediment transport during glacier melting in fjords (J A Dowdeswell co-supervisor with Prof Andy Woods, BP Institute/Earth Sciences)