PhD Projects
Our group offers open PhD projects in our main areas of research interest.
PhD students in the Particle Physics Theory group may choose to explore all the group's research interests in their first few months. After this time, they begin work on a research project which is mutually agreed with a staff member. So, broadly speaking, we offer PhD projects in all of our areas of research interest. Information about our interests, as well as the details of some specific PhD projects, are available here:
Our students say:
During my Masters year at UCL, I became interested in pursuing a degree in Particle Theory because it was exciting to think that I could be working on understanding the universe at the most fundamental level. I was drawn to Edinburgh primarily because of its excellent reputation and also because of the range of topics that were on offer. For me, it was very important that I found a potential supervisor that I thought I would be able to get along with on a personal as well as a professional level. Here, I found myself thinking that there were a number of people I could see myself working with and furthermore the atmosphere I experienced from the current PhD students was really encouraging. On top of this, I fell in love with city; it has the perfect balance of being big enough to always have something going on yet small enough that you can generally get anywhere you want by walking (including an extinct volcano, which many cities tend to lack). I am thoroughly enjoying my time here in Scotland’s capital.
James Cockburn (started Sept 2013)
When I applied for PhD positions, Edinburgh was my first choice. My reasons were: it has a large theory group, research is done on a wide range of areas, there are many PhD students and postdocs, many opportunities to travel, and Edinburgh is a beautiful city to live in. Luckily, I got offered a place and all my expectations were met. Having done my Masters degree in Germany I was surprised to learn that it is common practice in the UK to first choose the group and decide on a reasearch topic only after a few months. It went a bit different for me: I met my supervisor at a workshop during my Masters programme. After some research on theory groups in the UK I decided that I wanted to work with him. I also made sure that he would be able to supervise me and that I like the topic I would work on.
Susanne Ehret (started Sept 2013)