
Overview
The PhD degree is the Department of Earth Sciences' principal research degree for postgraduate students. As a large and integrated department, the expertise and current research of our staff spans the breadth of Earth Sciences. We have 37 academic staff who are available to supervise PhD students.
We welcome research enquiries from students who are currently working toward, or have acquired, first degrees in: Earth Science subjects, physics, chemistry, mathematics, material science, biology, or other related subjects.
The Department of Earth Sciences is a partner in several Doctoral Training Programmes (outlined below), who award research-council-funded studentships. Other studentships are available through different funding sources.
If you wish to find out more about potential projects or the Department, then please contact a relevant member of academic staff—you can discover their interests and find their contact details on our Research pages.
Projects
Cambridge CREATES DTP
Environmental science is at the heart of our most pressing societal challenges: climate change and the need for secure energy; biodiversity loss in the context of food production and land use pressures; natural and climate-induced hazards in the face of growing vulnerability.
The Cambridge Research Experience and Advanced Training for Environmental Scientists (CREATES) Doctoral Landscape Award (DLA) unites the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey as hosts for PhD training and projects, working with a wide range of collaborative partners. Its aim is to nurture and train environmental scientists from a variety of backgrounds, creating diverse cohorts of interdisciplinary, problem-solving environmental science postgraduates qualified to take up a broad spectrum of careers. DLA is the new terminology for Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs), and CREATES is our new programme, which we hope will take in 5 cohorts of students, with the first cohort starting in October 2025. CREATES follows on from C-CLEAR which recruited 6 cohorts of students. Various departments of the University of Cambridge, as well as the British Antarctic Survey, are members of CREATES and eligible to host PhD students. Students will apply to work in broad areas with a named lead supervisor and will co-develop detailed PhD projects with full supervisory teams (and potential CASE partners) on arrival.
Information for prospective applicants
Our Department is home to a vibrant and supportive community of researchers, who are working on exciting questions at the forefront of understanding our planet, environment and planetary systems.
We welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students. Explore the broad project themes listed below, and feel free to reach out to our researchers who would love to discuss designing a project with you.
You’ll find our Research Groups listed on our website here, and the contact details of academic staff listed under each group page. For information see our Prospective Postgraduate Student pages here. The deadline for applications is 7th January.
Potential project areas:
- Natural Hazards: volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides, flooding and climate-related hazards
- Climate Sciences: reconstructing past climates using ice and marine cores, ocean modelling, marine conservation and the carbon cycle
- Seismology: explore mysterious features in the mantle, understand mantle convection and investigate volcanic processes at Earth’s surface
- Planetary Science: planetary geochemistry, the development of the Earth’s mantle, atmosphere and ocean and more
- Igneous Petrology: volcanology, geobarometry, volatiles, mantle processes, Large Igneous Provinces, crustal magmatic systems, diffusion chronometry, global volatile cycles, Icelandic volcanism and more.
- Critical Metals: REE enrichment in alkaline magmas, lithium granites and porphyry copper deposits.
- Mineralogy: Fundamental rock, mineral and environmental magnetism; natural fluids, minerals, and environmental conditions, mechanics and microstructures of deforming rocks; nuclear materials, nanoparticles; and biomineralization
- Geochemistry: The evolution of our planet from its crust to core, including biomineralization, surface weathering, biogeochemical cycling, critical metals, Archean tectonics, mantle heterogeneity, accretion and core-mantle interaction.
- Palaeontology: Evolutionary paleobiology and palaeoecology and its links to environmental change
Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe (LCLU)
The Department is offering several studentships through the University’s Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe. For full details see the LCLU page
These studentships are available for home (UK) students starting October 2025 meeting the widening participation criteria set out by the LCLU.
Students should apply to the department as usual through the postgraduate admissions portal and note on their application their interest in one of the LCLU projects offered by academics in Earth Sciences, alongside DTP and other available projects they have identified.
Cambridge AI4ER CDT
The Cambridge UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in the Application of Artificial Intelligence to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER) offers around ten 4-year UKRI-funded PhD studentships each year to start in October. The programme comprises a one-year MRes (two terms taught, one term research), and a three-year PhD to apply AI methodologies.
A wide range of projects will be available under the broad themes of:
- Weather, climate, and air quality
- Natural hazards
- Natural resources (food, water and resource security, and biodiversity)
For more information on this Centre for Doctoral Training, including training structure and applying to the course, please visit the AI4ER CDT pages.
Other
Fully-funded studentships are also available at the BPI Institute, and through the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Nuclear Energy Futures.
We are also happy to devise projects with you, particularly if the projects outlined above are not of interest and you have interests that we share. Explore our Research pages to see which members of academic staff you would like to work with, and then contact them directly.
Funding
DTP studentships will be funded by UK research councils. Other studentships available in department will be funded by industry and several Cambridge Colleges.
We also have a number of CASE awards, which involve direct links with industry partners.
Applications
Before applying, applicants are advised to contact the relevant member of academic staff for their chosen project to discuss your research interests.
To make a formal application for a PhD studentship, please go to the University's Applicant Portal. When you complete the on-line application, you will have to indicate a college choice—it may help to discuss this choice with your prospective supervisor before submitting your application.
If you are applying from outside the UK, then please read our PhD (Overseas Students) page.
For questions related specifically to a project, please contact the relevant supervisor directly.
For more general information, please contact our Postgraduate Admissions.