Prospective Students and Postdoctoral Researchers
The favourite part of my job is to supervise research projects and I supervise on BSc, MSc and PhD students. Before contacting me about opportunities, please read the page below carefully.
PhD Students
[Update: Recruitement for 2024 start dates is now over. I will start recruiting for Autumn 2025 from September 2024 onwards.]
What I am looking for: I am particularly interested in hearing from potential PhD students with a strong mathematical background and/or strong programming abilities. Typical students in my group have achieved high grades in mathematics, statistics or computer science undergraduate and MSc programmes, and have previous research experience through a research thesis or summer research placements. I am also very happy to consider applicants with experience in industry. Beyond mathematical background and programming abilities, what I value most is students who are driven and passionate about their work.
What you can expect from me as supervisor: I am really passionate about supervision and heavily invested in helping my PhD students succeed. I usually meet 1-1 with my students about once a week to discuss progress in research, give advice, and more (although this can be slightly more or less depending on the stage of the PhD). I also organise meetings every three to six months to check on the progress my students are making towards their career goals, and how I can support them in doing so going forward. Finally, I know many find research to be a lonely activity, but I believe this doesn’t have to be the case. My research group has weekly group meetings and regular social events. We also have a culture where everyone is encouraged to help each other and/or work as a team, rather than in competition with one another.
Before applying: Please contact me via email before submitting a formal application (every application where this has not happened will be rejected). When getting in touch, make sure to highlight your research interests and how these align with my own. To do this, you might find it helpful to check out my publications page, which contains a list of my papers as well as a list of project pages describing some of my current research interests. What I am expecting to see from your email is that you have spent a minimum amount of time to find out whether my research aligns well with you interests, and have thought about whether I might be a good supervisor for you.
Application process: I can supervise PhD students at UCL through a number of routes. One important point is that applications for PhD positions are often separate from applications for scholarships. In those cases, you will usually have to submit two types of applications, one for admission to UCL and the other for funding. Here are a few of the main funding routes to consider. If you get in touch with me about an application, I am happy to help you navigate this.
Post-PhD
I will soon be advertising a position through a UKRI-funded project to design a ‘Digital twins handbook’. This will be a position for 2 years and the project is together with colleagues in Engineering and Biology at UCL. The project lead is Prof. Andrea Townsend-Nicholson, and the other co-Is are Dr. Claire Ellul, Dr. Tim Hillel, and Prof. Dimitrios Rovas. We will be looking for someone with expertise on science communication or policy, with an interest in digital twins.
BSc and MSc Students
[Update: I will not have capacity to take on any BSc/MSc students before Autumn 2025.]
I typically supervise BSc students from the BSc Statistics, and MSc students through the MSc Statistics and MSc Data Science programmes, all at UCL. If you are currently enrolled in one of these programmes, feel free to contact me about research projects which align with my research.
Unfortunately I am not able to supervise any other BSc or MSc projects at this time (whether in other departments at UCL or not). I am also not able to welcome research interns at BSc/MSc level from other universities. I will therefore not answer any email enquiries about this.