Join Us

We are always looking for motivated and curious individuals to join our group. Whether you are a prospective PhD candidate or postdoctoral researcher, St Andrews provides a fantastic environment to enhance your condensed matter knowledge and perform impactful research. Our group particularly prides itself on working at the interface between theory and experiment; predicting new exciting physical phenomena but always with an eye to experimental tractability and potential applications. If that sounds interesting to you, then please do consider applying.

We fully understand that the UK academic application system can sometimes be a bit confusing, so if you are interested in joining then the easiest thing is to get in touch in order to discuss opportunities and projects.

Here are some specific ways to join:

PhD applicants

The main way for potential PhD students to apply is through the centralised application system of the University of St Andrews School of Physics. Please do get in touch if you want to discuss the process and potential projects, even if you are not yet sure about applying.

In the first instance you should simply either contact us or apply (or both!), however, some specific information about available funding can be found on the School Website, but it is important to stress that this should not be a primary worry at the initial stage of application.

An example of an open PhD project can be found here. More details of PhD projects will be posted as this website gets up and running!

Post-docs

The UK has a considerable number of post-doctoral fellowship schemes spanning from those focussed on people that have just finished their PhD to advanced schemes. funding an entire independent group. You can find a full list of schemes available on the School Website. Feel free to get in touch if you are considering applying for any schemes.

Below we (re)list some of the schemes most relevant to the group. It is important to note that these opportunities periodically change – including hyperlinks – and some schemes also have an internal university process. As such, please do get in touch if you would like to discuss applying:

Postdoctoral fellowships (2-5 years, funding only the position of the fellow):

• 1851 Fellowships – postdoctoral fellowships funding for three years, – deadline typically in January
• Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships – postdoctoral fellowships for three years, expression of interest deadline is in November
• EPSRC postdoctoral fellowships – post-doctoral fellowships in specific areas of research
• Marie Curie fellowships – European Research Council funding. Typically two years. Deadline typically in September.
• Stephen Hawking Fellowships – these are three year fellowships in theoretical physics, rolling deadline.
• Royal Society Newton fellowships – for applicants from outside the UK for a postdoctoral stay of three years, deadline in March

Advanced fellowships (5 years and more, funding the position of the fellow):

• Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowships – five-year fellowships for early career researchers up to four years after their PhD. Deadline typically in September. Applications are subject to demand management, deadline for expression of interest typically in July each year. Award budget capped at £625k.