chemistry phd london

Imperial College London Imperial College London

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• Department of Chemistry
• Faculty of Natural Sciences
• Departments, institutes and centres
• Postgraduate

Join a community of innovative academics and postgraduates based in world-class facilities

Apply online

Find out more about application requirements and  submit your application online

Got a question?

Contact a member of the postgraduate administration team .

Why chemistry at Imperial?

Transferable skills training.

Studying for a PhD in the Department of Chemistry will provide you with access to world-class research facilities as well as the opportunity to take advantage of the many transferable skills training courses that are offered both within the Department and at the Imperial College Graduate School . Completing these courses can allow postgraduate students to achieve Registered Scientist status, full Membership of a Professional Body or Chartered status. Learn more about the Graduate School's MARS membership scheme .

The White City campus: facilities and collaboration

PhD students will have unique access to the growing number of facilities and opportunities that are developing both within the Department and as part of the wider White City campus development.

The  Chemistry Department's new building at White City allows internal and external researchers from academia and industry to co-locate with us for an agreed period, working shoulder-to-shoulder on common challenges. Collaborators joining us in the building have access to expertise and people (through joint supervision of research projects), as well as state-of-the-art facilities . Our facilities include  molecular characterisation  and autonomous chemistry , as well as extensive wet-lab capabilities, cleanrooms, materials manufacturing laboratories, nanomaterials fabrications and molecular imaging suites. 

Nurturing an inclusive environment and pioneering research that benefits society

The department has held its  Gold Athena Swan award for good practice in supporting academic women since September 2013. This award recognises the good practices already in place for supporting women at all stages as well as promoting an inclusive working environment for all.

The Chemistry department has a proud history of pioneering chemistry training and research with practical benefits to society which continues today. We are one of the largest departments in the UK and our activities cover the full range of fundamental theoretical and experimental chemistry, as well as research at chemistry’s interfaces with other disciplines such as materials, engineering, biology and medicine. Our new building on the White City campus is a custom-built facility designed to support the College's vision for Chemistry; this landmark building is providing the Department with the space and infrastructure needed to realise the potential for major advances in molecular and chemical science whilst also helping to develop a new molecular sciences neighbourhood.

Opportunities

Find a supervisor.

To search for opportunities based on your own research idea, identify a supervisor whose objectives best match your idea and contact them to discuss your research ideas before you apply online

Search research themes and staff

Available studentships

Find out more about our PhD Studentships and view a selection of those currently available

View current opportunities

Doctoral training networks

Integrated PhDs providing a new model of postgraduate training. They retain the depth, rigour and focus of a conventional PhD while also providing a broader training experience.

View networks

Chemistry Research MPhil/PhD

Key information

The Department of Chemistry occupies research laboratories Britannia House on Guy’s Campus, with state-of-the art analytical and spectroscopic facilities close at hand and further analytical and synthetic facilities at the Waterloo and St Thomas’ Hospital campuses.

Chemistry research spans the Faculties of Natural & Mathematical Sciences, and Life Sciences & Medicine, and broadly ranges from computational and physical chemistry to chemical biology, medical imaging and materials science. Additional strengths are in analytical chemistry and spectroscopy, metallochemistry, nanoparticle chemistry and biology and drug discovery.

Chemistry is also a major component in a number of prestigious Centres based at King’s such as the Cancer Research UK/EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, Wellcome/EPSRC Medical Engineering Centre, and BHF Centre of Excellence.

Current number of academic staff: 15 academic staff and a number of affiliate academic staff across the College.

Head of group: Prof Martin Ulmschneider

Students are encouraged to begin their research in October so as to attend the introductory courses, but students can also register at a further three registration points during the academic cycle (January, April and July).

Recent publications

• Cytochrome P450–catalyzed L-tryptophan nitration in thaxtomin phytotoxin biosynthesis
• Dynamics of a bacterial multidrug ABC transporter in the inward- and outward-facing conformations
• Dopamine receptor D3 regulates endocytic sorting by a Prazosin-sensitive interaction with the coatomer COPI
• Stabilization of a Protein Nano-cage through the Plugging of a Protein-Protein Interfacial Water Pocket
• Preferred Conformers of Proteinogenic Glutamic Acid

Current research areas

For information about the exciting research in the chemistry department please see our research pages: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/chemistry/research

Partner organisations

King's Health Partners, including Guy’s and St Thomas', King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts; Crick Institute.

• How to apply
• Fees or Funding

For funding opportunities please explore these pages:

• List of funding opportunities
• External funding opportunities for International students
• King’s-China Scholarship Council PhD Scholarship programme (K-CSC)

UK Tuition Fees 2022/23

Full-time tuition fees: £6,120 per year

Part-time tuition fees: £3,060 per year

International Tuition Fees 2022/23

Full-time tuition fees: £26,640 per year

Part-time tuition fees: £13,320 per year

UK Tuition Fees 2023/24

Full-time tuition fees: £6,540 per year

Part-time tuition fees: £3,270 per year

International Tuition Fees 2023/24

Full-time tuition fees: £28,260 per year

Part-time tuition fees: £14,130 per year

These tuition fees may be subject to additional increases in subsequent years of study, in line with King's terms and conditions.

• Study environment

Research in the Department of Chemistry is based in Britannia House (a pharmaceutical industry grade research facility). In addition to labs equipped for synthetic chemistry, biochemistry and tissue culture, individual research groups have specialist kit (e.g. laser excitation and microwave spectroscopy) as well as access to King’s excellent core research facilities:

• Centre of Excellence for Mass Spectrometry
• Centre for Biomolecular Spectroscopy
• Nikon Imaging Centre
• NMR Facility
• Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS/MS)
• Radiochemistry facilities and medical imaging

Postgraduate students are encouraged to mix with other scientists, both fellow students and beyond, at events varying from Departmental seminars to international conferences. These offer you the chance to present and discuss your work at many levels make valuable network connections.

The nature of the research in the Department of Chemistry is highly cross-disciplinary and making contacts and exchanging ideas form a core part of this approach to science.

Research projects may be co-supervised by staff from different Research Divisions and Departments to support collaboration and application of chemical innovation especially in medicine and biology.

• Entry requirements
• Research groups

Aldous Group

Research at the Aldous Group focuses on thermoelectrochemistry and biomass utilisation.

Barry Group

Our research focuses on understanding and exploiting the natural product biosynthesis, from the conditions under which biosynthetic pathways are expressed to elucidating the mechanisms of the enzymes involved, in pursuit of novel compounds and biocatalysts.

Booth Group

The Booth group works at the interface of Chemistry and Biology to elucidate the mechanisms by which proteins fold, assemble and communicate within biological membranes.

Borysik Group

The Borysik group use native mass spectrometry (MS) ion mobility MS and hydrogen-deuterium exchange MS to study the conformations and dynamics of important biomolecules in order to understand their function.

Brogan Group

Research in the Brogan Group aims to develop new enzyme-based biotechnologies to help us move to a more sustainable, renewable, economy.

The Cobb Group has developed a number of new asymmetric reactions, mainly focusing on the chemistry of the nitro or sulfone groups.

Diez-Perez Group

Find out about research in the Diez-Perez Group.

Eggert Group

The Eggert Group uses chemical and cell biology approaches to study cytokinesis at the process, pathway, protein and metabolite levels.

Hogarth Group

Graeme Hogarth is an inorganic chemist with a broad range of interests focused on molecular transition metal chemistry.

Isaacson Group

The Isaacson group uses biophysical techniques, with a focus on NMR spectroscopy, to determine macromolecular structure and interactions of molecules relevant to health and disease.

Müller Group

Research in the Müller lab focuses on using synthetic protein chemistry to elucidate how proteins are controlled by post-translational modifications.

Musgrave Group

The Musgrave Group looks into Metallopolymers and Metal-Metal Bonding

Reading Group

Eamonn Reading's group focuses on understanding structure-dynamics-function relationships of membrane proteins

The Sanz group looks at how biomolecular conformation plays a fundamental role in biological processes such as molecular recognition.

Ulmschneider Group

The Ulmschneider group studies how peptides and proteins interact with cellular membranes and carry out their biological functions.

Wallace Group

The Wallace Group builds artificial mimics of cell membranes; both to improve our understanding of membrane biology, and to engineer new devices inspired by biology.

For more information regarding our courses please contact us using the details below

2 minutes with Shefali Saxena, Chemistry PHD student

Shefali describes King's in three words and chats about her research.

2 minutes with Laura Blackholly, Chemistry PHD student

Laura talks about her research, inspirations and describes the Chemistry...

Centre for Doctoral Studies

NMES Graduate School

A supportive and engaging environment for PhD students

Funding & Scholarships for PhD students

The Centre for Doctoral Studies helps secure funding for students...

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• Studentships

• Postgraduate Research

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PhD Chemistry 

The Chemistry PhD programme is focused on a major piece of original research. You will study under the direct supervision of a member of staff, who is an expert in his or her area of specialisation. The department offers a broad range of research themes across physical, organic, inorganic and computational chemistry, specific departmental strengths are listed under research areas below.

Read more on the Chemistry PhD programme 

Supervisor: Rachel Crespo-Otero Application deadline: 15/12/2023

UCL Chemistry Department is offering a fully funded studentship to a highly motivated candidate to start in September 2023.  The student will carry out his/her doctoral research at UCL.

Organic molecular crystals find applications in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), photovoltaic cells, solid-state lasers and biological sensors. Organic materials allow the design of cheap flexible devices with properties easily tuned by minor modifications of the chemical structure. In contrast, with their amorphous counterparts, single organic crystals display good thermal and photochemical stabilities, and the crystal packing prevents luminescence quenching caused by interaction with oxygen. However, the computational design of highly emissive materials is limited by the challenges associated with the description of excited states in the condensed phase.  

In the last few years, the Crespo-Otero group has developed fromage (framework for molecular aggregate excitations) to investigate excited state processes in organic molecular crystals. This project will focus on the investigation of challenging excited state processes in molecular crystals displaying ultralong phosphoresce for OLEDs and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for photocatalytic and sensing applications. This project aims to exploit the capabilities of fromage and other electronic structure codes to study excited state dynamics and prediction of static and time-resolved spectra in the condensed phase. Depending on the student's profile and interests, the project might also involve method development and applying machine learning tools.

The applicants should have, or be expecting to achieve, a first or upper second-class Honours degree or equivalent in Chemistry, Physics or Materials Sciences. Previous experience in computational research is essential either in the application of classical or electronic structure techniques, programming skills are desirable but not essential. Interested candidates should initially contact the supervisor, [Dr Rachel Crespo Otero], with a degree transcript and a motivation letter expressing interest in these projects. Informal inquiries are encouraged. Please note that a suitable applicant will be required to complete MS Form entitled Application for Research: degree Chemistry programme. In addition, it is essential that suitable applicants complete an electronic application form at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/apply (please select Research degree: Chemistry programme) prior to the application deadline and advise their referees to submit their references as soon as they possibly can. All shortlisted applicants will be invited for an interview no more than four weeks after the application deadline. Any admissions queries should be directed to Dr Jadranka Butorac and Rhianna Betts at [email protected] .

Applications are welcome from UK nationals, EU students with settled/pre-settled status and students with indefinite leave to remain or enter. Please note that the studentship only covers home fees. The updated rules for eligibility for home fees for next year are available at View Website .

We offer an excellent education with high standards of teaching in an exciting but friendly environment. We foster a community feel to the department and you will mix throughout your time here with staff, undergraduate students and researchers.

UCL Scholarships:  find the currently available Studentships with the  Scholarships and funding tool.

Questions & Answers : There's a lot you should ask and a lot for us to tell you in our FAQ section .

Departmental Graduate Tutor Professor Jim C. Anderson Email:  [email protected]

For all PGR enquiries contact: Email:  [email protected]

Study Chemistry

• Undergraduate
• Postgraduate Taught
• CDT in Molecular Modelling and Materials Science

Why do a PhD in UCL Chemistry?

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Postgraduate

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• Queen Mary University of London
• Postgraduate
• Research degrees

Research degrees in Chemistry

The School of Physical and Chemical Sciences at QMUL is one of the UK’s elite research centres, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the UK-wide assessment of university research. We are home to an active and multi-disciplinary research programme. Our research staff are engaged in a wide range of projects across the broad sweep of Chemical and Psychological sciences.

Our Chemistry PhD programme offers students the opportunity to conduct research within a range of areas. We have an online list of available PhD projects . Applicants are also encouraged to contact prospective supervisors to discuss potential PhD opportunities within their area of expertise. Information on our research areas can be found on the   School of Physical and Chemical Sciences research pages. 

We advertise a number of funded PhD projects throughout the year.

Further information on PhD projects and funding is available on the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences webpage. 

Entry Requirements

Requirements for each PhD project vary but generally, we are looking for applicants who hold, or expect to receive:

• A first or upper second-class honours degree in a relevant subject area. If your qualifications are not from a UK university, QMUL also considers recognised equivalent qualifications from accredited overseas institutions and equivalent professional qualifications.
• A masters qualification is desirable but not always essential.
• Relevant experience within the field may also be taken into account.

The following information may also be factored into your application:

All students must meet   Queen Mary's English language requirements                                                                                                  

Please visit the  School of Physical and Chemical Sciences website for information on the   application process.

For more information please contact: 

Robert Miles, PhD Programme Administrator                                                                                Email: [email protected] 

Apply online

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Qualification, university name, phd chemistry in london.

4 degrees at 4 universities in London.

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• PhD Chemistry
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• Course title (A-Z)
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• Price: high - low
• Price: low - high

Chemistry MPhil/PhD

Ucl (university college london).

• 3 years Full time degree: £5,860 per year (UK)
• 5 years Part time degree: £2,930 per year (UK)

Queen Mary University of London

• 3 years Full time degree: £5,000 per year (UK)
• 6 years Part time degree: £2,500 per year (UK)

Chemistry PhD

Imperial college london.

• 3 years Full time degree: £4,596 per year (UK)

Chemistry Research MPhil/PhD

King's college london, university of london.

• 3 years Full time degree: £6,540 per year (UK)

Course type:

• Full time PhD
• Part time PhD

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