Marc Stettler

[Full coverage of tuition fees, a generous travel budget, and an annual tax-free stipend of £23,805.] This PhD studentship is part of the Brahmal Institute’s October 2027 Doctoral Programme in Sustainable Aviation (DPSA) at Imperial College London. The programme brings together an interdisciplinary cohort working on aviation sustainability from a systems perspective, with shared learning, specialist training, networking, and outreach designed to support collaboration across airports, airlines, air traffic management, aircraft, and passengers. The project focuses on one of aviation’s most important climate challenges: contrails. The student will use advanced modelling methods to study the ice-formation mechanisms of novel fuels and to integrate those mechanisms into global-scale contrail modelling. The research will evaluate whether alternatives to conventional jet fuel, including hydrogen and other emerging fuel concepts, could substantially reduce contrail formation and alter aviation’s climate impacts. Working with Dr Stelios Rigopoulos, Dr Sebastian Eastham, and Professor Marc Stettler, the project combines modelling, aerosol microphysics, and climate-impact analysis in a research environment centred on sustainable aviation. It aims to address key uncertainties in how disruptive fuels interact with contrail formation and to assess whether they could play a role in eliminating contrails altogether. The studentship sits within Imperial College London’s Brahmal Institute and contributes to a broader programme focused on system-wide change for more sustainable aviation.

[Full coverage of tuition fees, a generous travel budget, and an annual tax-free stipend of £23,805.] This PhD studentship at Imperial College London is part of the Brahmal Institute’s October 2027 Doctoral Programme in Sustainable Aviation, themed around sustainability across stakeholders. The project focuses on contrail avoidance as a near-term climate intervention and asks how pilot observations can be turned into a more reliable, collaborative reporting system across airlines and air navigation service providers. The successful student will work on designing and evaluating a system that combines pilot input with aircraft and camera data, alongside governance frameworks, to improve contrail forecasting, verification and operational decision-making. The project sits within an interdisciplinary doctoral cohort that is expected to address aviation sustainability from a systems perspective, connecting airports, airlines, air traffic management, aircraft and passengers. The research is supervised by Professor Marc Stettler and Dr Sebastian Eastham, and is embedded in the Brahmal Institute’s research environment with shared learning, specialist training, networking and outreach as part of the programme. The topic is well suited to a student interested in aviation systems, sustainable aviation, and the interface between operational practice and climate impact reduction.