Each of our research students is associated with a research group and supervised by a member of staff from this group. As part of this supervision, you will take part in a monitoring exercise every six months. Your supervisor will help you learn the techniques you may need and advise on training/courses to attend.

Our research groups enjoy strong collaborations with institutions around the world including Athens, Cambridge, CERN, Geneva, Imperial College, Jena, McGill, Nottingham, Oxford, University of Paris 6, Shanghai, Texas Tech, Trieste, Valencia, University College London and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich.

We have excellent student facilities, there is very extensive online access to journals, an excellent study environment in the College Library and access to the CREATE High Performance Computing facility. Networking with other graduate students in the College is encouraged through the activities of the Graduate School.

Postgraduate training

Department and College induction events are scheduled at the beginning of your degree to prepare you for life as a PhD student. All students are required to complete 10 days of training each year.

There is a centrally provided programme of training coordinated by the King's Doctoral College and the NMES Graduate school offers a range of unique training for our students with a focus to support PhD research and the PhD journey. It also organises a variety of social and research events for students from hosting the NMES PGR Welcome event, Science walking tours, Winter and Summer social parties, Movie and board game nights, to Presentation and Writing coffee mornings, a space for students to present their research work to peers and receive feedback, and one of the highlights in the NMES PGR calendar is the Research Competition, where 3rd year students across all five departments present their research in a 3-minute video culminating in an in-person event where all finalist videos are viewed, and the winners receive their prize.

Research students are also encouraged to submit papers to conferences and are supported to present their papers and posters.

Our research students are also encouraged to teach alongside their studies to help prepare them for a potential future career in academia.

More about the Department of Physics

The Department has a distinguished history, with the study of Physics at King's College dating back to its foundation in 1829. The first Professor was Sir Charles Wheatstone, with other former professors including James Clerk Maxwell, who discovered the unified equations of electromagnetism while at King's, and four Nobel laureates. The seminal x-ray crystallography work by Wilkins and Franklin which led to the discovery of the structure of DNA, was performed in the Physics Department.

The Department today includes world-leading researchers who work across international and interdisciplinary partnerships encompassing biophysics, material science, nanotechnology and theoretical particle physics and cosmology. Research in theoretical physics and cosmology has a particular focus on the interdisciplinary area of astro-particle physics and on LHC phenomenology, with strong links to CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research.

In biophysics enjoys strong links with the Randall Division for Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King’s, and the molecular and the Theory & Simulation of Condensed Matter group is part of the London-based Thomas Young Centre for Theory and Simulations of Materials.