Projects & Supervisors
Each year, some 15-20 supervisors will offer a total of well over 40 PhD projects. With 10-13 students starting their PhD, there are many more projects than students. As a consequence, the Institute does not provide a list of projects on offer for the coming academic year.
Below are the names and links to the members of staff expected to be available as supervisors for students beginning PhD's in October 2025. Exploring recent papers with the individuals as authors on the NASA ADS website will give an insight into current research interests. You can also click on the name of an individual supervisor to access information describing current research interests.
The Institute has a number of emeritus staff and individuals nearing retirement or expecting to change institution. While such individuals often engage and collaborate with postgraduate students, they are not available as primary supervisors of PhD students.
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.
Planetary systems, Exoplanets, Debris discs, Polluted white dwarfs, Origin of life.
Physical and theoretical cosmology, cosmic microwave background, large scale structure formation and growth.
Protoplanetary discs, binary stars, cluster dynamics.
Near field cosmology, dwarf galaxies milky way, Cosmology,
Stars and stellar evolution, black holes, neutron stars, near field cosmology, milky way, dark matter, Gravitational lensing and microlensing.
Theory of dark ages, cosmic dawn and reionization including: cosmology and hydrogen 21-cm line, properties of intergalactic medium, dark matter physics, first stars and black holes, intensity mapping. Interpretation of data from radio telescopes using Bayesian analysis and Machine learning. Synergies.
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.
Time Domain Observational Astronomy: Exoplanet Discovery, Variability in Young Stars, Gaia and PLATO.
Exoplanets, Atmospheres, Interiors, Formation mechanisms, Habitability, Biosignatures, Hycean worlds, JWST.
Supernova cosmology, Astrostatistics, astronomical machine learning, astroinformatics, Time-domain and transient astronomy, Bayesian modeling and inference, Statistical computation.
Galaxy formation and evolution, high redshift quasars, supermassive black holes.
Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Black Holes, Compact Objects, Astrostatistics, Bayesian inference and data analysis.
Cosmology, Galaxy Evolution, Astroparticle Physics, Early Universe Theory, Bayesian Analysis and Machine Learning, Gravitational wave Astrophysics.
Extrasolar planets, sub-Neptunes, rocky planets, solar system, planet formation, interior structure and dynamics, habitability, origin of life.
Formation and evolution of galaxies, dark energy, dark matter, baryons, supermassive black holes and multi messenger science.
Stars, Stellar Evolution. and Interacting Binary Stars.
Assembly history of the Milky Way, Late stages of stellar evolution & Planetary Nebulae, Supernova cosmology & Supernova Alerts Exoplanet/ Host Star Connection.
Evolution of planetary systems, circumstellar disk observations, debris discs.