PhD in Cosmology: Best UK Universities

[kop442000]

Could anyone suggest good universities in the UK for studying cosmology at a PhD level?

Thank you!

 

[cristo]

What's your background? That will help with compiling a suitable list - e.g. Cambridge won't accept you without part iii, Imperial are likely to not accept you without a Master's, lots of other places only accept people with a four year undergrad degree, etc..

 

[kop442000]

I'm a UK student. I have a first class MPhys in Physics with Astrophysics, and am now studying for a MSc by research - so just in the middle of applying for a PhD position.

Thank you.

 

[cristo]

Ok, so you sound like a good quality candidate; well here's a partial list

Imperial, Cambridge, Portsmouth, Sussex, Oxford, {Nottingham, Durham, Lancaster, Kings (these are more particle physics orientated, though Durham have a growing computational centre)}, Cardiff (more CMB orientated), UCL, Queen Mary U of. London, Manchester (smallish group, focuses mainly on cosmic strings and defects).

I've likely missed somewhere out...

Do you have any idea what you'd like to do, maybe something related to your MSc project? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to give away too much info on the public forum.

 

[xGAME-OVERx]

It is my understanding that Newcastle do a little bit of computationally oriented cosmology & gravitational research, but do tell me to be quiet if that isn't true.

I was at an open day at Imperial last week, very impressive ;)

May I ask where you studied/are studying for your previous/current degree?

Many Thanks
Scott Smith

 

[LithiumHelios]

Ok, so you sound like a good quality candidate; well here's a partial list

Imperial, Cambridge, Portsmouth, Sussex, Oxford, {Nottingham, Durham, Lancaster, Kings (these are more particle physics orientated, though Durham have a growing computational centre)}, Cardiff (more CMB orientated), UCL, Queen Mary U of. London, Manchester (smallish group, focuses mainly on cosmic strings and defects).

I've likely missed somewhere out...

Do you have any idea what you'd like to do, maybe something related to your MSc project? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to give away too much info on the public forum.

List seems really good, only other group of the top of my head would be Edinburgh, who have a strong cosmology group.

It's probably best to just look up the research pages and see what people are working on and their recent publications. What would you be interested in?

CMB Lensing? Weak lensing? Statistical cosmology? Large scale structure? Cosmological perturbation theory? Data analysis methods? Non-Gaussianity? CMB Polarisation? 21cm cosmology? Inflationary cosmology? Modified gravity? N-Body simulations? Cosmic Reionisation? Particle cosmology? String cosmology? Galaxies side of things?

Just to throw out some generic research areas...

 

[cristo]

List seems really good, only other group of the top of my head would be Edinburgh, who have a strong cosmology group.

Thanks, I knew I'd miss one. Edinburgh have, of course, a strong cosmology group!