PhD Opportunities in Astronomy in Switzerland

The University of Zurich is advertising more than 25 fully funded PhD positions across a broad range of research areas. The opportunities are based in Zurich, Switzerland, and are offered as paid positions rather than as a single scholarship programme. Fields represented in the listings include life sciences, medicine, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, astrophysics, and the social sciences and humanities. The breadth of the call may suit applicants seeking doctoral research in biomedical an...

The Laboratory for Quantum Magnetism (LQM) at EPFL offers a PhD project in experimental quantum magnetism focused on microwave spectroscopy of rare-earth quantum magnets. The project explores how electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom become entangled, how electro-nuclear states evolve under external magnetic fields, and how their occupancy can be manipulated by external perturbations. Research will be carried out in a laboratory environment that combines synthesis of novel materials with in-...

This PhD project is hosted in the Laloui Group at EPFL in Lausanne and is carried out within the SNSF-funded project DFabuLis: Digital Fabrication Using Living Systems . The research sits at the intersection of geomaterials, material science, and engineering applications, focusing on how biologically driven mineralization can be used to transform demolition and excavation materials into feedstocks for digital fabrication under ambient conditions. The doctoral researcher will investigate the coup...

This PhD project is part of VERTICAF (Vertical Africa: Visualizing Urban Change, Negotiating Power, Designing Sustainable Cities) , a comparative research initiative on urban verticalization in African cities. Based at EPFL Lausanne and linked to partnerships with the Universities of Dakar, Kigali, and Luanda, the project examines how cities in Africa are changing through vertical growth and what this means for urban futures. The doctoral researcher will focus on developing and applying methods ...

This PhD project at EPFL’s Plant Ecology Research Laboratory (PERL) examines how forest canopy temperature and spectral properties track tree physiological responses to increasing atmospheric drought and soil water limitation. The research aims to understand how forests regulate canopy temperature and water use under drought stress and to develop approaches for mapping forest vulnerability from individual trees to large spatial scales. The work is highly interdisciplinary, combining plant ecophy...

This PhD project in theoretical quantum physics is hosted by the University of Geneva in the Department of Theoretical Physics and the Quantum Dynamics group . The work is jointly supervised by Julian Sonner and Romain Vasseur . The project focuses on connections between measurement-induced phenomena , quantum chaos , and holography . The successful student will explore open and monitored quantum dynamics, the emergence of quantum chaos and pseudorandomness, and broader links to ideas from holog...

ETH Zürich is offering a fully funded PhD position in glaciology and glacial hazards through the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) and the ICEFAL Project. The research focuses on cold hanging glaciers in the French and Swiss Alps, investigating how climate warming affects glacier stability and ice-avalanche risk. The doctoral project combines high-altitude fieldwork with glacier modelling and geospatial analysis, providing an interdisciplinary research environment at the i...

The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL is offering a full-time PhD position in the Alpine Remote Sensing group within the Climate Change, Extreme Events and Natural Hazards in the Alpine Region (CERC) research center. The position is based primarily at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos, Switzerland, with periods at SUPSI in Mendrisio and fieldwork in Canton Ticino. The PhD research will develop, test, and implement methodologies for i...

The University of Zurich is offering a four-year, 80% PhD position in Large-Scale In-Situ Experiments on Glacier Ice Rheology and Thermodynamics within the Swiss National Science Foundation-funded LISERT project. The doctoral researcher will join the Glaciology and Geomorphodynamics Group in the Department of Geography and investigate how temperate glacier ice deforms under active forcing at metre scales. The research combines large-scale in-situ glacier measurements, structural-geological analy...