PhD Opportunities in Earth Science

This PhD project is part of TWIG, a five-year ERC Starting Grant focused on tropical forest biomass flows that are usually missed by conventional inventories. The work combines repeated terrestrial laser scanning with long-term forest monitoring to directly quantify damage, recovery, and biomass redistribution in mature tropical forests. The doctoral researcher will study the environmental and biological drivers of tree-level biomass changes and the ecological consequences of small-scale disturb...

This PhD position is based at the Department of Aquatic Resources at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU Aqua) and focuses on the management and conservation of critically endangered fish, with a particular emphasis on eel ( Anguilla ). The project addresses key knowledge gaps around trap and transport (T&T) , a management method used to support fish migration in river systems with barriers and to reduce turbine mortality for downstream-moving fish. The doctoral project is desig...

This PhD position is based at RWTH Aachen University within the Chair of Thermodynamics of Mobile Energy Conversion Systems (TME) and the Institute of Thermodynamics , in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The research environment is embedded in the chair’s broader work at the Center for Mobile Propulsion (CMP) , where the focus lies on mobile propulsion systems, including internal combustion engines with synthetic fuels, fuel cells, and battery-electric drives. The advertised project is cen...

This EngD project at the University of Twente focuses on standardizing fieldwork and data management for Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) measurements at the university’s Utility Mapping Site (UMS). The project addresses a clear research gap: although many GPR systems are available, there is no systematic method for collecting, documenting, and comparing measurement data across systems and environmental settings. You will work on developing a consistent protocol for GPR field measurements, includi...

This EngD project at the University of Twente focuses on building AI methods for detecting underground infrastructure in ground penetrating radar (GPR) radargrams and estimating burial depth. The work builds on high-quality GPR data from the university’s Utility Mapping Site (UMS) , a dedicated test environment for utility mapping technologies. You will work on systematically collected and accurately annotated GPR datasets to develop and validate machine learning models that improve automated in...

This PhD project explores how living microorganisms can be used as environmental sensors and memory systems . Rather than relying on conventional disposable electronics, the research asks whether organisms that naturally integrate environmental signals can be decoded to reveal the conditions they have experienced over time. The student will work on understanding the visual and structural responses of microorganisms to different environmental conditions, then build computational methods that can ...

[Annual stipend at the UKRI minimum rate currently £21,805 per year plus £1,000 per year enhancement, and a research training support grant of up to £20,000 for the full 4-year programme.] This 4-year PhD project at The University of Manchester focuses on the use of geospatial foundation models to improve the monitoring of smallholder agricultural systems from satellite data. The work sits at the intersection of Earth Observation , remote sensing , and agricultural mapping, with an emphasis on u...

[Annual stipend at the UKRI minimum rate of £21,805 per year plus £1,000 per year enhancement, with a research training support grant of up to £20,000 for the full 4-year programme.] This 4-year PhD studentship at The University of Manchester explores how soil health is sensed, interpreted, and communicated across biological, technological, and human systems. The project focuses on soil condition in urban environments, looking at how belowground life and emerging sensing approaches can be linked...

[Annual stipend at the UKRI minimum rate currently £21,805 per year, plus £1,000 per annum enhancement, and a research training support grant of up to £20,000 for the full 4-year programme.] Sub-cool is a 4-year PhD studentship at The University of Manchester that explores how urban aquifers could be used as reliable, sustainable resources for geothermal cooling in a changing climate. The project brings together hydrogeology , climate change , and social science perspectives to study both the ph...