Teaching : PhD projects and students

My current PhD student is Jack Mayo, who is working on obscured AGN.

PhD opportunities

We generally have about 6 PhD places each year funded by STFC, by SUPA, and occasionally from other sources. General information about our PhD application process is available here

STFC funded studentships

For the STFC funded places, we offer a series of possible projects, in which PhD candidates can express interest. The offered projects for 2012 entry can be found here. My offered projects this year cover :

  • The very faintest radio sources and the evolution of galaxies and their black holes. Working on the eMERLIN legacy "eMERGE" survey, on new deep EVLA surveys, and following up the sources found in them. The aim is to understand the Cosmic Radio Background, and to decide whether it results primarily from star formation or low-level AGN activity.
  • Nuclear structures and gas flow in AGN This is two parts. The first is reduction of Spitzer and ESO VIMOS data, to study the "molecular torus" in AGN at z~0.8, and the second is new deep radio and optical studies of nearby AGN, to compare the jet axis, molecular disc structure, and emission-line cones.
I have also considered a project on AGN transients found with PanSTARRs, but its not yet well developed.

I would welcome any informal enquiries.

SUPA prize studentships

Edinburgh is part of SUPA, which runs an international competition for fully funded studentships which can potentially be held anywhere in Scotland. "Fully funded" means that the award can cover living costs as well as University fees, which is what makes these studentships attractive to international students. The application deadline is Jan 20th 2012, for students starting in September 2012. The usual process is that prospective students pick something from our list of offered projects, let the the supervisor know of their interest, and use this as the basis of their online application. However, I would welcome any more general enquiries about possibilities in any of my current areas of research.

Past PhD students

  • Jess Skelton
  • Emma Taylor
  • Olivia Johnson
  • James Manners
  • Rachel Johnson
  • Paulina Lira
  • Dimitra Rigopoulou
  • Iossif Papadakis