Phd in Chemistry - Structural Chemistry and Chemical Dynamics

University of St Andrews

PhD (Doctorate): a research-based degree, normally of three to four years duration. You will engage in a full-time research project and write a thesis of no more than 80,000 words and undergo an oral examination. The School of Chemistry at St Andrews has a thriving PhD community with around 150 PhD students studying here at any one time. Each student’s PhD experience – from their project to their funding. The School values its PhD community and contributes a major component of its own income to funding PhD positions in Chemistry. This funding is assigned to academics directly, and so it is always worth making an application. The rational design of biological molecules and novel materials requires a fundamental understanding of precise nanoscale structure and probing the dynamics of molecular processes. Structural chemistry allows the tailored design, synthesis and characterisation of materials with novel magnetic, electronic and (photo)catalytic properties. Experimental and theoretical investigations of chemical dynamics provide insight into crystal engineering, geological processes, supramolecular self-assembly.Research in this theme utilises a range of characterisation techniques including NMR, EPR, diffraction (X-ray, electron and neutron), laser spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, electron microscopy, surface analysis (STM, AFM, NEXAFS, XPS) complemented by state-of-the-art computational methods. These tools are capable of high spatial or temporal resolution allowing the precise characterisation of the structure of biological molecules and novel materials and the dynamics of molecular transformations and materials processing.

Chemistry