PhD study

I’m accepting PhD applicants on topics using geographic information systems and/or Earth observation including:

• City sustainability
• Safety in the built environment
• Urban design and mental well-being
• Applications of accessibility and transport networks (using new tools such as R5R)
• Environmental / social / political equity (e.g. urban heat islands and redlining)
• Applied urban research using big spatial data tools (e.g. DuckDB, PostGIS or Google Earth Engine)

PhD application process

Unfortunately i have no immediate funding for prospective PhD students. However, there are a range of UCL (and external) funding competitions. My suggested application process is as below. If you are able to self fund or have secured external funding you can apply at any time, but you must still follow the application process below.

Typically during UK summer

• Develop an application to send to me directly that includes:
  • A research proposal of 1,000 - 2,000 words
  • A CV

If suitable for my research interests I will return the proposal with comments for you to respond to. Assuming this is satisfactory you can then proceed to submit an application to UCL

Once you have submitted an application or have a confirmed place you can apply for a funding, I am aware of the following schemes:

Due start of January

• UCL research excellence scholarship (home/oversees students): https://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships/research-excellence-scholarship

• China Scholarship Council-UCL Joint Research Scholarship (citizens and permanent residents of the People’s Republic of China): https://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships/china-scholarship-council-ucl-joint-research-scholarship

Application starts in September

• The UCL, Bloomsbury and East London Doctoral Training Partnership (UBEL) (home students): https://ubel-dtp.ac.uk/urbanstudies/

• UELAs (UCL’s EPSRC PhD studentships). Staff submit projects that students can apply to between late October and early January. This is competition based across all applicants: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/epsrc-doctoral-training/prospective-students/ucl-epsrc-landscape-award-uela-studentships

Current students

Shitian Zhang “Decision Support for Fire Service Operations Using Geospatial Simulation and Machine Learning”.

Completed students

Dr Matthew Ng “Analysing Urban Growth in Brunei: a focus on land-use, accessibility, and policy”.

MSc/MRes study

From 2020-2025 I was the MSc/MRes Urban Spatial Science programme leader. The programme equips students with a multi-disciplinary and critical perspective on approaches to understanding, monitoring and improving global urban resilience and sustainability through the use of data. Taught content explores the theoretical, social and scientific foundations of the modern built environment through a geo-spatial, data-oriented lens. Learn more about the MSc/MRes Urban Spatial Science →

Past students

Student	Research	GitHub	Award
Yi-Chien Chen	Exploring the distribution of town centre accessibility through sustainable modes; A data-informed approach to London’s sustainable transport strategy
Lorena Brambila Cantu	A gendered approach to understanding pedestrians’ perception of safety and the built environment; A case study of London
Loubna Sasso	Exploring areas of upgrade based on the 15-minute city concept – A case study of London		2022 Society For Location Analysis Masters Award
Signe Swarttouw	Exploring the distribution of urban building carbon emissions; A spatial approach to Westminster’s decarbonisation strategy		2021 Royal Geographical Society Planning and Environment
Cheyne Campbell	Taking Steps Towards Pedestrian Safety: A Case Study of Charlotte, North Carolina		2020 Royal Geographical Society Planning and Environment

Scholarships

I apply and maintain a range of scholarship funding for our MSc, including:

• Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Scheme

• Funding now finished: Office for Students Conversion Course funding (CASA Urban Futures)