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Join us in the University of Exeter’s Centre for Metamaterials Research & Innovation – the heart of the UK Metamaterials community.
You’ll be part of the £20 million EPSRC MetaHUB – the UK’s largest investment yet in the vibrant and strategically important field of Metamaterials research.
Explore a career and grow your experience of research and professional life in and around the Physical Sciences with this industrial PhD studentship in Physics – fully funded by the University of Exeter and Leonardo UK.
We’re looking for a student who has a passion for science, with ambition to learn and apply their own ideas, perspectives, and their personal skillset to the discovery, development, and commercial translation of new 3D nanoscale magnetic metamaterials.
What You’ll Do in this Project
Size, weight, and power: the future is small but mighty.
Working together with Leonardo UK towards immediate real-world applications in an operational environment, you’ll design and create intricate nanoscale geometries and combine common materials in new ways to build bespoke, miniaturised antennas using magnetic nanoparticle structures.
Your designs will make it possible to integrate digital technology platforms in previously unrealised ways and places, enhancing device communication and functionality in the defence and security domain.
The Studentship
Starting October 2026.
This scholarship covers postgraduate tuition fees, a training budget, and an uplifted personal tax-free stipend of at least £22,805 per year for 4 years full-time study.
Based in the University of Exeter Department of Physics & Astronomy on our Streatham Campus overlooking the beautiful green City of Exeter, with views out over the rolling Devon hills and down the river to the sea.
About You
You must be a UK National/UK Dual-National to apply.
You must have obtained, or be about to obtain (graduated before August 2026), a First (1:1) or Upper Second-Class (2:1) UK Honours degree (e.g. BSc, MSc, MPhys, etc.), or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in a relevant area of Physical Science, Materials Science, or Engineering.
You should be able to demonstrate some computational capabilities (e.g. evidencing a 2:1 or higher in relevant computational modules, or through examples of projects where you have applied your computational skills & knowledge).
This is an experimental and computational project where you will use a variety of methodologies to produce hierarchal 3D lattice structures. You will receive training in all necessary techniques, AI and programming languages throughout the PhD, but should be willing and able to learn micro and nanofabrication, electromagnetic and micromagnetic computational modelling, theoretical and experimental analysis of electromagnetic properties of metamaterials, as well as the fundamentals of microwave technologies and communication devices.
MetaHUB is a multi-institution research collective, with projects shared across partner universities and companies, so you must be willing and able to work collaboratively, including with colleagues from the defence and security sector. You will be based in Exeter’s Centre for Metamaterials Research & Innovation and will work closely with our industrial partners, including principally, Leonardo UK.