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School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
  1. School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
  2. PhD/Research
  3. China Scholarship Council Project

China Scholarship Council Project

Queen Mary University of London has partnered with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to offer a joint scholarship programme to enable Chinese students to study for a PhD programme at Queen Mary. Under the scheme, Queen Mary will provide scholarships to cover all tuition fees, whilst the CSC will provide living expenses for 4 years and one return flight ticket to successful applicants. 

The School of Physical and Chemical Sciences is pleased to offer several projects under this scheme to start in September 2026. Please see below for the available projects.

Eligibility and applying

Applicants must be:

  • Chinese students with a strong academic background.
  • Students holding a PR Chinese passport.
  • Either a resident in China at the time of application or studying overseas. 
  • Students with prior experience of studying overseas (including in the UK) are eligible to apply. Chinese QMUL graduates/Masters’ students are therefore eligible for the scheme.

Please refer to the CSC website for full details on eligibility and conditions on the scholarship.

The deadline for applications to Queen Mary is 28th January 2026. Applicants will need to complete an online application form by this date to be considered. Shortlisted applicants will be invited for a formal interview by the project supervisor. Those who are successful in their application for our PhD programme will be issued with an offer letter which is conditional on securing a CSC scholarship (as well as any academic conditions still required to meet our entry requirements).

Once applicants have obtained their offer letter from Queen Mary they should then apply to CSC for the scholarship by the advertised deadline with the support of the project supervisor.  Please note that we expect all applicants to have satisfied Queen Mary's English language requirement at the time of their application to CSC.  

For September 2025 entry, applicants must complete the CSC application on the CSC website by the advertised deadline.

Only applicants who are successful in their application to CSC can be issued an unconditional offer and enrol on our PhD programme.

Projects:

 

Project Title Supervisor
Exact results in corelation functions and AdS/CFT (China Scholarship Council Project) Dr Congkao Wen
Testing nature with the Belle II experiment (China Scholarship Council project and STFC) Professor Adrian Bevan
Disordered crystals for new functional materials (China Scholarship Council project) Professor Anthony Phillips
Bayesian approach to the analysis of Raman data (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Andrei Sapelkin
Integrating machine learning with density functional theory to develop physics-based ab initio interaction models [China Scholarship Council project] Dr Alston Misquitta, Dr Devis Di Tommaso, Professor Anthony Phillips, Dr Boek
Optical spectroscopy and microscopy of individual quantum dots (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Andrei Sapelkin
A World’s Most Precise Measurement of the Fundamental Standard Model Parameter – the Weak Mixing Angle (China Scholarship Council and STFC) Professor Eram Rizvi
Search for Higgs Boson decays to charm quarks using AI applications at the ATLAS experiment at the LHC (STFC) Dr. Ulla Blumenschein
Neutrino Physics with Short Baseline Neutrino Programme (STFC) Dr. Nicola McConkey
New techniques for scattering amplitudes of particles, strings and black holes (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Ricardo Monteiro
Exploiting Arynes for the Development of New Synthetic Organic Chemistry (China Scholarship Council Project) Dr Chris Jones
Next-generation Sustainable Functional Materials (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Yao Lu
Helicenes and Chiral Spin Filtering (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Jochen Brandt
DNA-based asymmetric photocatalysis (DAP) (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Stellios Arseniyadis
Sustainable Printing of Perovskite Semiconductors in Ambient Environment for Large-Area, High-Stability Devices (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Stoichko Dimitriov
Helicenes and Chiral Spin Filtering (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Jochen Brandt
Search for High Energy Physics Beyond the Standard Model in Effective Field Theories Using Machine Learning Techniques (China Scholarship Council and STFC)] Prof. Eram Rizvi
Integrating AI and DFT for Rational Design of Catalysts in CO2 and CO Electrochemical Conversion (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Devis Di Tommaso
Bioelectric control of stromal resilience using piezoelectric biomaterials (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Marc A. Fernández Yagüe
Bench stable, recyclable, atroposelective single-component palladium catalysts for enantioselective Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling. (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Stellios Arseniyadis
Large scale structure in the Universe (China Scholarship Council project) Professor Chris Clarkson
Star and Planet Formation Connections (China Scholarship Council project) Dr Tom Haworth

Research Group: Center for Condensed Matter Physics
Number of Students: 1
Length of Study in Years: 4 Years
Full-time Project: yes

Funding

Funding is provided via the China Scholarship Council.  

  • Available to Chinese applicants only.
  • Applicant required to start in September 2026
  • The studentship arrangement will cover overseas tuition fees for the duration of the studentship.

Project Description

There are a wide range of sodium ion batteries (SIBs) currently being developed and their differences stem from the choice of anode, cathode, and electrode. The most common anode materials are carbon, metal-oxide, and alloy-based. For the cathode the material types used are metal oxides, layered oxides, and polyanion phosphate compounds. The focus of this research will be on the hard carbon anode (HC) and its integration into the full-cell geometry, and explore moving away from the typical rocking-horse cell design towards a dual-ion design.  This research project will answer the following questions

  • What is the best structure that can both increase gravimetric (or volumetric) energy density and cycle stability with SIBs?
  • What alternative battery chemistries (e.g Al, Mg, K etc.) are possible with hard carbon anodes, and how might they be optimised?
  • Can the SIB single ion (rocking horse) device geometry be adapted to a dual ion battery geometry, and if so, what electrolytes are optimal?

Application Method:

To apply for this studentship and for entry on to the Physics programme (Full Time) please follow the instructions detailed on the following webpage:

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/spcs/phdresearch/application-process/#apply

Deadline for application – 28th January 2026

Supervisor Contact Details:

For informal enquiries about this position, please contact Prof Alan Drew

Email: a.j.drew@qmul.ac.uk

Requirements

  • The minimum requirement for this studentship opportunity is a good Honours degree (minimum 2(i) honours or equivalent) or MSc/MRes in a relevant discipline.
  • If English is not your first language you will require a valid English certificate equivalent to IELTS 6.5+ overall with a minimum score of 6.0 in all categories.  English language certificate will be required at application. 

SPCS Academics: Professor Alan Drew

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