Projects & Supervisors
The members of staff available as supervisors for students beginning PhD's in October 2027 will be listed below from 3rd September 2026. Click on a supervisor’s name to access information describing their current research interests.
| Supervisor | Research Areas | PhD 2027 | MPhil 2027 |
| Dr James Alvey | Machine learning, gravitational waves, Bayesian inference, artificial intelligence, simulation-based inference | Yes | Yes |
| Professor Vasily Belokurov | Dark Matter. Galaxy formation and evolution, Galactic archaeology, Galactic structure and sub-structure, Dwarf galaxies, Accretion history of the Milky Way, Tidal streams, Gravitational lensing , Gravitational microlensing, Surveys like Gaia, APOGEE, GALAH, SDSS, OGLE, RAVE, LSST, Transients and variable stars, Machine learning techniques. | Yes | Yes |
| Dr Amy Bonsor | Planetary systems, Exoplanets, Debris discs, Polluted white dwarfs, Origin of life. | Yes | Yes |
| Dr Christopher Cain | Cosmic Reionization and the observables that probe it, including the Lyman alpha forest, 21 cm line, CMB, and Lyman alpha emitting galaxies. Physics of the intergalactic medium on small scales, radiative transfer simulations & related numerical methodology. | Yes | Yes |
| Professor Anthony Challinor | Physical and theoretical cosmology, cosmic microwave background, large scale structure formation and growth. | Yes | No |
| Professor Cathie Clarke | Protoplanetary discs, binary stars, cluster dynamics. | Yes | No |
| Dr Miles Cranmer | Machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistics, galactic dynamics, local group, cosmology, galaxy formation, planetary systems, fluid dynamics, simulations. | Yes | Yes |
| Professor Wyn Evans | Stars and stellar evolution, black holes, neutron stars, near field cosmology, milky way, dark matter, Gravitational lensing and microlensing. | Yes | Yes |
| Professor Anastasia Fialkov | Theory of dark ages, cosmic dawn and reionization including: cosmology and astrophysics with the hydrogen 21-cm line, properties of the high-redshift intergalactic medium, dark matter physics, first stars and black holes, impact of AGN. Interpretation of data from radio telescopes (HERA, REACH, SARAS, etc.) using Bayesian analysis and Machine learning. Synergies between different Cosmic Dawn signals. | Yes | Yes |
| Dr Will Handley | Cosmology, astroparticle physics, gravitational waves, Bayesian analysis and machine learning (theory, observation & methods). | Yes | No |
| Dr Boryana Hadzhiyska | Cosmology, large-scale structure, cosmic microwave background, extragalactic astronomy, gas dynamics, cosmological simulations, galaxy surveys, early Universe, weak lensing, theory and observations | Yes | Yes |
| Professor Martin Haehnelt | Reionization and the Physics of the Intergalactic Medium, the Formation of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes, the Lyman-alpha Forest as a probe of Dark Matter, Observational Cosmology. | Yes | Yes |
| Dr Simon Hodgkin | Time Domain Observational Astronomy: Exoplanet Discovery, Variability in Young Stars, Gaia and PLATO. | Yes | Yes |
| Professor Kaisey Mandel | Supernova Cosmology, Astrostatistics, Astronomical Machine Learning, Time-domain and Transient Astronomy, Gravitationally-lensed Supernovae, Bayesian Modelling and Inference, Statistical Computation. | Yes | No |
| Professor Sera Markoff | High-energy Astrophysics, Black Holes/Accretion Physics, Black Hole Imaging, Multimessenger/Astroparticle Physics and Time Domain/Transients | Yes | Yes |
| Dr Fiona McCarthy | Cosmology; cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations analysis and interpretation; combined analysis of CMB and large scale structure (galaxy) datasets | Yes | Yes |
| Dr Chris Moore | Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Black Holes, Compact Objects, Astrostatistics, Bayesian inference and data analysis. | Yes | No |
| Professor Hiranya Peiris | Cosmology, Galaxy Evolution, Astroparticle Physics, Early Universe Theory, Bayesian Analysis and Machine Learning, Gravitational wave Astrophysics. | Yes | No |
| Dr Antti Rantala | Formation and evolution of galaxies and star clusters, formation and dynamical interactions of black holes of all masses. Developing novel high performance computing frameworks. | Yes | Yes |
| Dr Nikhil Sarin | Time domain and transient astrophysics, Gravitational-wave astrophysics, neutron star dynamics, formation, and evolution | Yes | Yes |
| Professor Oliver Shorttle | Extrasolar planets, sub-Neptunes, rocky planets, solar system, planet formation, interior structure and dynamics, habitability, origin of life. | Yes | Yes |
| Professor Debora Sijacki | Formation and evolution of galaxies, black hole physics, multi messenger science, numerical methods, cosmological simulations of structure formation. | Yes | Yes |
| Dr Nicholas Walton | Exoplanet/ Host Star Connection, Assembly history of the Milky Way, Late stages of stellar evolution & Planetary Nebulae | Yes | No |
| Professor Mark Wyatt | Evolution of planetary systems, circumstellar disk observations, debris discs. | Yes | Yes |