PhD opportunities

There are different application forms depending on whether you want to apply for an EPSRC DLA studentship, or a studentship on a grant. These are described below. You will have to submit two different applications if you want to be considered for both an EPSRC DLA studentship and a studentship funded from a different source.

EPSRC DLA Studentships

Please strictly refer to the guidance on how to apply on the University's DLA webpage.

Non-DLA Studentships (PIs for 2026/27: Fazzi, Klemm)

Please use the University online system to submit your application, and see general guidance on how to apply. 

The application form is in two parts. Part one needs to be filled out with your personal details.

Part two contains your choice of course applications as well as supporting documents. For this part, please refer to the following instructions and required documents specific to our group.

• Under "Course selection":

  • Select "Standard PhD", "Full time", "School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences" in the first three fields.

  • Indicate "Algebraic Geometry and Mathematical Physics" as your research topic of choice. 

  • If you are applying to the FoS studentship, indicate "Marco Fazzi" as your prospective supervisor. If you are applying for one of the Leverhulme studentships, indicate "Albrecht Klemm" as your prospective supervisor. If you are applying for both, please indicate both supervisor names.

  • Tick "yes" by the field "Do you know how you want to fund your studies?", and then from the drop-down menu choose "Scholarship or studentship"

  • Choose "I am thinking about funding my studies this way" from the last drop down menu.

• Under "References": upload two reference letters, or contact details of two referees who can provide you with a reference.

• Under "Supporting statement": refer to the guidance notes on the webpage for what to include.

• Under "Course Supporting Documents": we require you to upload a CV in this section. If available, please also upload your transcripts and your Master thesis work.

We have a growing number of PhD students working on a variety of areas of Algebraic Geometry and Mathematical Physics. In the department there are many other PhD students to talk to working in Algebraic Topology, Number Theory, General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, Category Theory and Differential Geometry.

Each week there is ample opportunity to attend a variety of seminars run by various research groups. The algebraic geometry and mathematical physics postgraduates themselves organise a weekly reading group where they work through a set of lecture notes on a particular topic. 

In 2024-25 we have run learning seminars on the minimal model programme (Sem 1) and on Frobenius manifolds and birational geometry (Sem 2). 

Past topics included: 

• singularity theory

• motivic integration

• intersection theory

• algebraic stacks

• toric varieties

• algebraic surfaces

• Donaldson-Thomas theory

• K3 surfaces

• parts of Ravi Vakil’s Foundations of Algebraic Geometry

• Robin Hartshorne’s notes on Deformation Theory

• various topics from Mirror Symmetry

More broadly, there are several postgraduate reading groups in areas other than algebraic geometry and mathematical physics. To name a few, there have been study groups on Topological K-Theory, V.I. Arnold’s book Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, Applied Topology and Galois Representations.