Soft Matter and Liquid Crystals Physics

Entry requirements

The standard academic entry requirement for this PhD is an upper second-class (2:1) honours degree in a discipline directly relevant to the PhD (or international equivalent) OR any upper-second class (2:1) honours degree and a Master’s degree at merit in a discipline directly relevant to the PhD (or international equivalent).

Other combinations of qualifications and research or work experience may also be considered. Please contact the admissions team to check.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Manchester is one of the largest and most active physics departments in the UK. We have a long tradition of excellence in both teaching and research, and have interests in most areas of contemporary research.

The Department has a strong presence in a number of Manchester-based centres for multidisciplinary research: The National Graphene Institute, the Photon Science Institute, the Manchester Centre for Non-Linear Dynamics, and the Dalton Nuclear Institute. In addition, the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire is a part of the department.

The Soft Matter and Liquid Crystals group offers a well-equipped laboratory and strong research activities across a broad range of topics related to Soft Matter, in particular, thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals, as well as composite systems based on anisotropic fluids, like polymer-modified liquid crystals, colloidal liquid crystals, and dispersed nano-systems. We are a multi-disciplinary group, which works at the overlap between physics, chemistry, materials science, biology and engineering. As such, we are involved in a large range of collaborations, not only with other groups and centres at the University of Manchester, but also nationally and internationally. For more information please visit our the Soft Matter research page.

The postgraduate research environment is well funded and world-class as demonstrated by our ranking in REF2021. Supervision is provided by academic staff, who are leaders in their fields, with independent pastoral back-up. Transferable skills training is available and there are some school teaching opportunities.

For more information about research themes within the department please visit our themes page or view available projects within the department on our Postgraduate Research projects page.