**PhD opportunities for October 2025** (deadline passed now)
A funded PhD (DPhil) project is available and open for applications, starting October 2025. This project, funded by the Royal Society, focuses on the structure of the mid mantle. The aim is to map out phase transitions and thus temperature by combining seismological models, mineral physics data and geodynamic models. Full funding is available for UK home students, but international students can also apply and will be considered for university scholarships.
Other potential projects focus on mantle upwellings and the background seismicity of London. Applicants interested in these are encouraged to apply both through a direct entry application and interdisciplinary DTP programmes.
The deadline for applications is in early January 2025. Students interested in this project and working with me in Oxford, please get in touch with any questions / concerns and to discuss the projects in more detail.
Research opportunities
Opportunities for PhD studies are generally advertised in December for a start in the next academic year, with the application deadlines typically in January. Applications are primarily invited through the Oxford Doctoral Training Programme.
Researchers looking for postdoctoral opportunities should get in touch to discuss project ideas and funding opportunities. I have ample experience with fellowship and funding applications and can provide advice. It is wise to start discussions early (a year or more in advance) due to funder deadlines.
Undergraduate or other students, looking for a MSc project or a short-term research experience in seismology, please get in touch with me and we can discuss possible projects.
Research interests
Seismic waves arise from a range of sources, including natural events such as earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions, making them useful to study natural hazards as well as Earth structure and dynamics. Seismic signals are also generated by human and animal activities, informing us about their behaviour and linking seismology to social science and zoology.
Most of my research has focused on the Earth's deep interior, where intriguing landscapes can be found, that reflect the complex processes at work since the formation of our planet. To image these landscapes, surface recordings of seismic waves generated by earthquakes are combined using techniques similar to those in medical CT imaging. These images allow us to answer fundamental questions about Earth's interior, such as: How has the Earth evolved to its present day state? Does the Earth's mantle behave more like a boiling pan of water, heated by the core and cooled at the surface, or more like a gigantic lava lamp due to large-scale compositional variations? These questions are important as they inform us about dynamic processes within the Earth that are relevant for its habitability and help us to understand how the evolution of the Earth differs from other planets in our solar system. We investigate these questions by combining seismological findings with the results from geodynamical models and insights from mineral physics, with the aim to unravel the long-term evolution and inner workings of our planet.
Within the DEEPSCAPE research group, we also work on a variety of other projects, some involve practical deployments of sensors, others involve more theoretical work on inference methods. One overarching theme is the importance of uncertainty characterisation, both in seismic data and in seismic models.
Research funding
Mid Mantle Mysteries
Royal Society URF renewal (2025 - 2028)
Enhanced Research Expenses for URF
Royal Society (2023 - 2025)
What makes a city move?
Royal Society Research Grant (2022 - 2023)
Enhanced Research Expenses for URF
Royal Society (2021 - 2023)
Seismic noise sources and background seismicity in London
Philip Leverhulme Prize, Leverhulme Trust (2022 - 2025)
Mantle Circulation Constrained (MC2): A multidisciplinary 4D Earth framework for understanding mantle upwellings
NERC Large Grant, led by PI Huw Davies (2020 - 2024)
Robust characterisation of large-scale flow in the deep mantle
Royal Society Enhancement Award (2018 - 2021)
Mapping seismological landscapes in the deep Earth
Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2018 - 2025)
Multi-scale imaging of the core-mantle boundary topography
Junior Research Fellowship, University College Oxford (2015 - 2018)
Imaging the Earth across the scales
ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowship (2014 - 2016)
Nahum Scholarship in Physics & Graduate Studentship
Pembroke College Cambridge (2010 - 2014)
System Earth Modelling Scholarship
Utrecht University (2008 - 2010)
Recent collaborators
- Harriet Lau, University of California, Berkeley
- Barbara Romanowicz, University of California, Berkeley
- Mark Hoggard, Australian National University
- Fred Richards, Imperial College London
- Stephen Stackhouse, University of Leeds
- Hauke Marquardt, University of Oxford
- Christophe Zaroli, EOST Strasbourg
- Sophie Lambotte, EOST Strasbourg
- Carlos Chaves, University of Sao Paulo
- Rhodri Davies, Australian National University
- Bernhard Schuberth, LMU Munich
- Jeroen Ritsema, University of Michigan
- Arwen Deuss, Utrecht University