PhD projects within the School of Earth Sciences for September 2019 entry are published on this page. It will be expected that you contact potential supervisors in advance of submitting an application.
Unless otherwise stated, all projects are eligible for full funding via our NERC GW4+ postgraduate training award. Please see the GW4+ website for further details. Students may also be funded from a variety of UK and international industry and government sources; any funded studentships for which we are currently recruiting are also advertised below.
Fully funded projects available:
Studentship funded by the University of Bristol to start in September 2019. Application deadline: 16:00 GMT, Monday 6 May 2019.
- Palaeobiology of the Kuanchuanpu Lagerstätte, the oldest Cambrian exceptional fossil fauna (Lead Supervisor: Prof Philip Donoghue FRS) Kuanchuanpu Lagerstätte (PDF, 281kB)
STFC projects
STFC studentships to start in September 2019. Please apply via link below. Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact supervisors to discuss projects. Apply before 18th April 2019.
- The viscosity of planetary cores from self-diffusion experiments (Main supervisor Dr Oliver Lord) Viscosity of planetary cores (PDF, 260kB)
- Utilising Rb-Sr Isotopes to Understand Early Solar System Volatile Depletion (Main supervisor Dr Ian Parkinson) Utilising Rb-Sr Isotopes (PDF, 200kB)
- Exploring planetary atmospheres using infra-red spectroscopy (Main supervisor Dr Nick Teanby) Exploring planetary atmospheres (PDF, 170kB)
GW4+ DTP projects
The GW4+ DTP for study starting in September 2019 opened for applications on 26th October 2018. The deadline for applications was Monday 7th January 2019 at 16:00 hours GMT.
Individual project titles that were available are listed below. Each description has details of the Project and Supervisor, and other background information.
Projects list
- The Carnian Pluvial Episode - a hidden mass extinction that triggered ecosystem revolution (Main supervisor Prof. Michael J. Benton) Carnian Pluvial Episode (PDF, 197kB)
- Global satellite observations of volcanic crises (Main supervisor Dr. Juliet Biggs) Observations of Volcanic Crises (PDF, 178kB)
- Ash size, dispersal and sedimentation for hydromagmatic volcanic eruptions (Main supervisor Prof. Katharine Cashman) Ash size (PDF, 225kB)
- Palaeobiology of the Kuanchuanpu Lagerstatte, the oldest Cambrian exceptional fossil fauna (Main supervisor Prof. Philip Donoghue) Palaeobiology of the Kuanchuanpu (PDF, 213kB)
- Tracing mantle convection with high precision U isotope measurements (Main supervisor Prof. Tim Elliott) Mantle convection (PDF, 175kB)
- Did neurons evolve twice? (Main supervisor Dr. Roberto Feuda) Did neurons evolve twice (PDF, 250kB)
- Barium cycling in high-latitude sea-ice environments (Main supervisor Dr. Kate Hendry) Barium cycling (PDF, 195kB)
- Understanding pyroxenite melting in the mantle using chromium and titanium isotope fractionation (Main supervisor Dr. Ian Parkinson) Understanding pyroxenite (PDF, 241kB)
- Volcanic eruptions on snow and ice: predicting dynamics and hazards from pyroclastic density currents and lahars (Main supervisor Dr. Jeremy Phillips) Volcanic Eruptions (PDF, 195kB)
- Understanding the relative relationships between sponges and comb jellies and early animal evolution using novel phylogenomic methods and the integration of multiple types of data (Main supervisor Prof. Davide Pisani) Sponges and comb jellies (PDF, 207kB)
- The influence of mechanical loads on the evolution of skeletal form (Main supervisor Prof. Emily Rayfield) Evolution of skeletal form (PDF, 159kB)
- Rapid climate events from Galapagos deep-sea corals (Main supervisor Prof. Laura Robinson) Deep sea corals (PDF, 133kB)
- The biological impact of changes in the heartbeat of the climate system (Main supervisor Prof. Daniela Schmidt) Heartbeat of the climate system (PDF, 260kB)
- Imaging shale gas reservoirs using microseismicity (Main supervisor Dr. James Verdon) Shale gas reservoirs (PDF, 220kB)
- TOF SIMS - Bridging materials science and palaeontology (Main supervisor Dr. Jakob Vinther) Bridging materials science (PDF, 179kB)
- Statistical machine learning to advance earthquake forecasting (Main supervisor Dr. Max Werner) Earthquake forecasting (PDF, 242kB)
To apply to the University of Bristol you must apply online
When applying for the GW4+DTP please select 'NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Programme DTP PhD' in the Programme Choice page drop down menu. When you reach the Great Western Four + DTP page at the end of the application pages, after the CV page, please specify the School of your project choice. You will need to make a separate application for each project.
To apply for any PhD project other than one within the GW4+DTP you should select PhD in Geology as the programme in the drop down menu.
If you have any questions, please contact the Postgraduate Administrator via email earth-postgrad@bristol.ac.uk.
General information on postgraduate admissions can be found on the University postgraduate webpages http://www.bris.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/
Did you know?
The Bristol School of Earth Sciences currently has around 100 PhD students across all years of study.