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Postgraduate Study

About the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology

The Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology is a very dynamic organization that brings together top-notch research in the areas of engineering, chemistry, biology, and physics. We are a diverse group, bringing in the best staff, students, and researchers world-wide, and we encourage applications from exceptional, highly motivated graduates.

We have strong ties with industry and other departments that allows us to conduct world-leading research and are considered ‘Among the Best in the World’ in the QS World University Rankings by Subject.  We offer two PhDs, one in Biotechnology and one in Chemical Engineering, as well as four Master’s courses:  the Master’s in Bioscience Enterprise (MBE); an MPhil in Advanced Chemical Engineering (ACE); the MPhil in Biotechnology; and the MPhil in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, which is a research-based MPhil. We would encourage you to review our courses offered, and if you choose to apply, we would look forward to considering your application.

6 courses offered in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology

This is a unique programme for chemical engineers seeking the advanced skills required by companies that operate in a rapidly changing environment and collaborate with developments in other disciplines. The course combines taught work and conventional research.

Students receive an education in advanced aspects of chemical engineering and in essential areas of engineering administration, such as technology policy, finance, and management. These aspects are designed to develop professional problem-solving skills. Students will also undertake a research project within the University, where they will be required to plan and execute their own work. The projects may include industrial collaboration.

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The Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology is a world-leading centre for research in the process industries. It covers a broad range of topics, including healthcare, sustainability, energy, and materials. Individual academics offer a broad range of topics.

The department welcomes applications to undertake research towards a PhD but is unable to accept candidates for whom no Supervisor is available. The department does not offer a taught PhD programme. Instead, it admits applicants who meet the academic admissions criteria and whose research interests match those of an available academic staff member willing to act as the student's Supervisor.

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The 11-month full-time MPhil in Biotechnology combines taught and research elements to provide students with state-of-the-art education at the interface of biology with physical sciences and technology. The programme is offered by the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology in collaboration with several other University departments and with support from a range of industry champions. In this very interdisciplinary programme, students acquire the foundations and learn about the latest advances in biotechnology, gain practical skills for wet-lab and computer-based work, and develop competencies to become business-savvy scientists in the fast-growing biotech sector.

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The Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology is a world-leading centre for research in the process industries. It covers a wide range of topics, including healthcare, sustainability, energy, and materials. Individual academics also offer a broad range of topics.

The department welcomes applications to undertake research towards a PhD but is unable to accept candidates for whom no Supervisor is available. The department does not offer a taught PhD programme. Instead, it admits those applicants who meet the academic admissions criteria and whose research interests match those of an available member of the academic staff who is willing to act as the student's Supervisor.

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The Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology is a world-leading centre for research in the process industries and covers a broad range of topics, including healthcare, sustainability, energy, and materials. Individual academics offer a broad range of topics. Please consult the Research Groups page on the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology website for more details.

The Department offers a one-year MPhil by research degree that is formally known as the MPhil in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (MPhil CEB).  The Department welcomes applications to undertake research for the MPhil, but is unable to accept candidates for whom no supervisor is available. Please note that this is a research-based MPhil with no taught component.  We welcome applicants who meet the academic admissions criteria and whose research interests match those of an available member of the academic staff who is willing to act as the student's supervisor.

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This 1+3 years MRes + PhD course trains students across the full breadth of sensor technologies and inspires future sensor leaders to address challenges in an uncertain world. Students will learn about the scientific principles of sensor technologies and their applications in a wide range of areas related to the entire sensor research value chain, from development to deployment, and from middleware to data science.  It will thoroughly equip students with knowledge and skills in the field, producing  experts capable of driving impactful sensor solutions for industry and society, and dealing with uncertain data and the consequences of a rapidly changing world.

By the end of their PhD, students should have become experts in their specific field of sensing while at the same time being able to communicate effectively with sensor developers and users across traditional discipline boundaries. This interdisciplinary programme draws upon taught modules and academic programmes across several departments and institutes at the University of Cambridge and is supported by a number of industrial partners.

Subject to passing the MRes in Sensor Technologies and Applications and demonstrating their ability to conduct research at the PhD level, students will proceed to their interdisciplinary sensor PhD projects in one of the many participating departments, including Engineering, Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Biology, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science and Medicine.

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7 courses also advertised in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology

From the Department of Engineering

This four-year doctoral training programme in Aerosol Science is part of the multi-institutional EPSRC Aerosol Science Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) and aims to provide scientists and engineers with a broad overview of the aerosol science sector in addition to in-depth training in detailed measurements, analysis and application approaches. The first seven months of the programme are based at the University of Bristol, during which time students will receive training in the underlying physical science governing the properties and transformation of aerosols. After this time, students will undertake a research project at Cambridge for five months, prior to commencing the main body of their doctoral research.

Full funding is available for eligible students.

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From the School of the Biological Sciences

The Cambridge Biosciences DTP is a four year fully-funded PhD programme that aims to create highly skilled and employable people. The programme offers training across 23 University Departments/Institutes and 3 Partner Institutes providing access to a wide range of research areas related to the strategic themes of the BBSRC. We offer three types of DTP studentships:

  • DTP Standard
  • Targeted
  • iCase

During the programme, DTP Standard and Targeted students will undertake two ten-week rotations in different labs before commencing their PhD. They will receive training in a variety of areas including but not limited to statistics, programming, ethics, data analysis, scientific writing and public engagement. Students will also undertake a 12-week internship (PIPS).

iCase students are not required to undertake rotations but may do so if they feel that this training would be useful. They must undertake a placement with their Industrial Partner for a minimum of three months and a maximum of 18 months.

Students will be expected to submit their thesis at the end of the fourth year.

Part-time study, whilst not the norm, may be viable, depending on the project, and will be considered on a case by case basis so please discuss this option with your proposed supervisor before making an application for this mode of study.

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From the Department of Physics

The development of new materials lies at the heart of many of the technological challenges we currently face, for example creating advanced materials for energy generation. Computational modelling plays an increasingly important role in the understanding, development and optimisation of new materials.

This four-year doctoral training programme on computational methods for material modelling aims to train scientists not only in the use of existing modelling methods but also in the underlying computational and mathematical techniques. This will allow students to develop and enhance existing methods, for instance by introducing new capabilities and functionalities, and also to create innovative new software tools for materials modelling in industrial and academic research.

The first year of the doctoral training programme is provided by the existing MPhil course in Scientific Computing, which has research and taught elements, as well as additional training elements. The final three years consist of a PhD research project, with a student-led choice of projects offered by researchers closely associated with the CDT. (https://ljc.group.cam.ac.uk

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From the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy

This PhD course is part of the EPSRC Centre of Doctoral Training (CDT) in Developing National Capability for Materials 4.0 led by the University of Manchester.

Success in achieving net zero, delivering a healthy nation and driving increased national resilience and productivity, will be critically reliant on novel materials and devices. This demands rapid delivery, but it typically takes up to 20 years to bring new materials to commercial use. To move faster we need scientists and engineers able to exploit new developments in high-throughput approaches to making, characterising and testing new materials, and able to deploy materials modelling and materials informatics to generate and exploit materials data. We need to digitalise the materials innovation process to accelerate development, certification and deployment of new materials, and materials systems. We need researchers adept at working across interfaces between machine learning, informatics, physical and cyber systems and modelling, learning from advances in other disciplines and breaking silos. In other words, we need graduates proficient in ‘Materials 4.0’.

The goal of this PhD program is to develop leaders in the field of Materials 4.0 and ambassadors for a broader cultural shift in the practice of materials science. Working across boundaries between fields, the students will develop and advocate for new capabilities (methods and techniques) to drive forward the digitalisation of materials research and innovation.

The CDT will develop the necessary skills in a significant number of new scientists, but our ambition is to build an even broader skills base for UK academia and industry. The training programme is therefore designed to take our students from learners to leaders over the course of the programme. The students will begin by learning core skills, but as they develop proficiency and confidence they will play a role in training others, within and external to the CDT. Their research projects will focus on developing new methods and tools within Materials 4.0 and in their last two years the students will take the lead in developing training materials for these new methods, delivering training and disseminating the new capability.

By training a new generation of researchers in the digitalisation of materials science, the CDT will provide the skilled recruits that UK industry and academia need to shorten time to market, improve productivity and resilience and maintain industrial competitiveness. Moreover, through the innovative delivery mechanism of our national CDT bringing together the strengths of three national institutes, we will drive broad culture change, disseminating skills across industry and academia, making Materials 4.0 a ubiquitous way of doing materials science.

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From the Department of Physics

The vision of this PhD programme is to deliver bespoke cohort-based interdisciplinary training that promotes holistic problem-focused thinking for nanoscientists, drives new scientific directions, and impactful and responsible translation of research to technologies. A particular emphasis will be exposure to a broad range of world-class research environments to allow students to discover their individual research and technology interests and develop strong ownership of their PhD topic.

The first six months of the programme will provide advanced-level training, specifically designed for students, through an integrated lectures + practicals module on Applied Nanoscience, a module on System Integration for Experimentalists and one short and one longer experimental project prior to the final selection of an interdisciplinary PhD research project between two research groups in the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Materials Science or another relevant department within the University. An additional module on Innovation for Scientists will help students develop a wider perspective, including training on innovation, sustainability and responsible research.

Throughout the programme, there will be an environment that supports creativity, resilience, peer-to-peer learning, networking, and connectivity. The programme will offer professional skills training to support students on different career paths in industry, academia, and beyond, and it will help students discover and nurture their leadership approach in varied contexts. Cross-cohort events will include student-led conferences, research seminars, onsite and offsite research, career development workshops led by internal and external experts, and other activities.

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From the Department of Physics

The MPhil programme in Scientific Computing provides world-class education on high performance computing and advanced algorithms for numerical simulation at continuum and atomic-scale levels. The course trains early-career scientists in the use of existing computational software and in the underlying components of the simulation pipeline, from mathematical models of physical systems and advanced numerical algorithms for their discretisation, to object-oriented programming and methods for high-performance computing for deployment in contemporary massively parallel computers.  As a result, course graduates have rigorous research skills and are formidably well-equipped to proceed to doctoral research or directly into employment. The highly transferable skills in algorithm development and high-performance computing make our graduates extremely employable in all sectors of industry, commerce and finance.

The MPhil in Scientific Computing is suitable for graduates from any discipline of natural sciences, technology or engineering, who have good mathematical and computational skills.  

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From the Department of Physics

The Sustainable Energy Materials Innovation PhD course at the University of Cambridge will provide diverse training in the design and discovery, development, scale-up, life-cycle analysis, and systems integration of advanced energy materials and devices in areas strongly guided by the needs of the ‘net-zero’ industry. It will train the future leaders needed for a rapid transition to a zero-carbon society and make transformational, incremental, and disruptive materials discoveries facilitating the energy transition.

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Department Members


Prof Clemens Kaminski
Head of Department

  • 29 Academic Staff
  • 60 Postdoctoral Researchers
  • 240 Graduate Students
  • 145 Undergraduates

http://www.ceb.cam.ac.uk/

Research Areas