PhD Research Project "Perfecting the Properties of Optical Fiber Coatings"

Co Supervisor: Prof. John Langley

Industry Supervisors: Dr Rogerio Ramos and Dr Chris Emslie

The PhD is in collaboration with Fibercore (https://www.fibercore.com), a company with a research centre in Southampton producing specialist fiber products.

The properties of specialist fibers critically depend on the formulation and application of applied polymer coatings. Indeed, their functional characteristics are dictated by the nature of the coating, which in turn is governed by its structure and the constituents used in the polymerisation process. The project will draw on our combined expertise in fiber technology, organic and analytical chemistry to understand and provide solutions to a broad range of intractable coating issues that Fibercore has identified. These include the development of:

An understanding of fiber failure due to delamination and ways to prevent it. 

An understanding of fiber outgassing and ways to prevent or manage it. 

Importantly, the geographical proximity of partners will facilitate regular partnership meetings and provide opportunities to use the state-of-the-art facilities available at Fibercore.  It will deliver topical, multidisciplinary training within a highly supportive research and training environment together with industrial experience.  In addition, it will benefit from association with LabFact, a €6M EU funded collaboration supported by the ERDF through its Interreg V programme.

The studentship is supported financially by Fibercore and the ESPRC through a prestigious CASE Conversion Award.  The PhD is for 3.5 years and welcomes applicants from the UK who have obtained at least an upper second-class degree in Chemistry or a closely aligned subject (e.g. Chemical Engineering with a strong organic chemistry component). Funding will cover fees and a stipend at current research council rates of £14,533 per annum.

Due to funding restrictions, this position is only open to UK applicants

Applications for a PhD in Chemistry should be submitted online

Please ensure you select the academic session 2017-2018 in the academic year field and click on the Research radio button.  Enter Chemistry in the search text field.

Please place Prof. David Harrowven in the field for proposed supervisor/project.

General enquiries should be made to Prof. David Harrowven (dch2@soton.ac.uk), Dr. Sam Thompson (Sam.Thompson@southampton.ac.uk) or Prof. John Langley (G.J.Langley@soton.ac.uk). Any queries on the application process should be made to pgafnes@soton.ac.uk

Applications will be considered in the order that they are received, and the position will be considered filled when a suitable candidate has been identified