Are you looking for an exciting, innovative PhD project that will be intellectually demanding, interesting, commercially relevant and fun?
Do you have a first degree (BSc, BEng, MEng) at 1st or 2(i ) level and/or an MSc preferably with distinction?
We are looking for bright, enthusiastic and motivated individuals who want to pursue PhD research as part of the NPL-Surrey strategic partnership.
In 2006, NPL and the University of Surrey signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop ever closer and stronger research and training ties between the two organisations. This has resulted in 3 fully funded* PhD studentships:
- Design And Measurement Methodology Of Low-Cost Small Smart Antennas
Smart antennas are the key technology for wireless communication and radars. Main objectives of this project include novel designs, implementations and measurement techniques of low-cost small smart antennas for terrestrial wireless communication networks and radars. It will involve antenna designs, EM modelling and simulation, RF circuit designs, DSP algorithms, FPGA, antenna measurement methodologies etc.
This project will start on 1 October 2008. The award for this project will be for a period of 3 years and include Home/Overseas tuition fees plus a stipend (approx £9,500 p.a). Applications are welcome from both UK and internationally.
Supervisors: Dr. Steven Gao, University of Surrey, s.gao@surrey.ac.uk and Dr. Tian Hong Loh at NPL.
- Scaffold Characterisation And Fabrication For Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts
Tissue engineering offers a potential solution to the problem of replacing damaged or diseased small diameter blood vessels through the creation of functional blood vessels in an in vitro environment. This technology uses some of the patients’ own cells to initially seed a porous scaffold. The cells then proliferate to form integrated, functional tissue. This project involves scaffold fabrication, microstructural characterisation to obtain a 3D CAD model that will permit computation of fluid flow through the matrix, nutrient permeation and cell migration. The predicted behaviour will be validated by measurements on real systems.
This project is for 3 years and pays a starting stipend of £13940 p.a. and home/EU fees.
Supervisors: Dr C.Lekakou, Univ of Surrey, c.lekakou@surrey.ac.uk, and Dr P.Tomlins, NPL
- Development Of A Microbolometer For Microdosimetry Of Ionisation Radiation
Improved radiotherapy treatment techniques are now at the forefront of government policy in the fight against cancer. With the introduction of new types of cancer treatment such as ion beam therapy there is a need to relate cell studies to clinical use and define a new physical quantity more closely related to the biological response of ionizing radiation than absorbed dose. This will require instruments to measure energy deposition on a microscopic scale and on an event by event basis. The objective of this project will be perform a design study of a radical new detection technique that uses a SQUID based micobolometer as the basis of ionising radiation dosimetry.
This project pays a stipend of £15,000 p.a and home/EU fees.
Supervisors: Prof A Nisbet Royal Surrey County Hospital /University of Surrey; Prof K Kirkby University of Surrey k.kirkby@surrey.ac.uk and Dr H Palmans, NPL
For an application form please contact Janette Redman on j.redman@surrey.ac.uk. Closing date for applications is 25 July 2008. Please indicate on your application which of the studentships you are applying for.
