PhD in Chemical and Process Engineering - Advanced Engineering Materials

University of Leeds

To complete a postgraduate research programme, you’ll need to be dedicated and passionate about your area of study. But it’ll be well worth it. Being a doctoral student is challenging, yet incredibly rewarding. You are expected to carry out a programme of research in a particular area under the supervision of a primary supervisor and one or more co-supervisors. A PhD is the most internationally recognised research qualification, and is the most commonly pursued research degree at Leeds. Typically, throughout your PhD you will undertake research in different stages across years one, two and three. However, your research degree may be longer depending on the project you have chosen.The properties of materials used in a variety of engineering applications, ranging from information and communication technology, transport, construction, environmental control, energy production and storage, healthcare and consumer products, can be tailored by developing a scientific understanding of their origin and using this to achieve control of the morphology, the micro- or nano-structure and the chemistry during the synthesis and processing steps of a manufacturing operation. In order to do this it is necessary to develop and employ tools and procedures to measure accurately and computationally predict the relationships between microstructure and properties at different lengthscales ranging from the atomic scale right up to the component or device level. This understanding can drive the development of novel synthesis methods in order to achieve a required microstructure and hence material property specified by a particular engineering design.