PhD studentship in Astronomy

PhD studentship in the Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes Since Cosmic Noon with PRIMA (2026)

What you get

• Fully-paid tuition fees for three and a half years.
• A tax-free bursary for living costs for three and a half years (£21,805 per annum in 2026/27).
• Additional financial support is provided to cover short-term and long-term travel.
• If you are not a UK national, nor an EU national with UK settled/pre-settled status, you will need to apply for a student study visa before admission.

Type of award

Postgraduate Research

PhD project

Star formation and black hole growth are perhaps the two most intriguing aspects of galaxy evolution. While galaxies and their central black holes operate on vastly different spatial scales, the Universe today shows a remarkable scaling relationship between galaxy stellar mass and central black hole mass. How did this come to be? Did they grow together, or via episodes where one is dominant and the other suppressed?

The Probe far-infrared Mission for Astrophysics, PRIMA, will provide the first integrated census of star formation and black hole growth when galaxy evolution was most active, between ~ 9 billion and 3 billion years ago. PRIMA's far-IR spectrophotometry simultaneously measures black hole accretion rate, star formation rate, and outflows from massive star-forming galaxies to establish how they are linked.

This simultaneous measurement is only possible in the mid- and far-infrared because dust obscures UV and optical radiation which is often used to track star formation, and gas obscures X-rays typically used to track black hole growth.

PRIMA is being proposed as the first $1B NASA Astrophysics Probe-class mission. It would be launched in 2032. Prof. Seb Oliver is one of the 27 PRIMA co-investigators and leads the UK involvement in PRIMA, funded by the UK Space Agency. Critical to PRIMA’s success will be to employ the world-leading XID+ modelling methodology developed here at the University of Sussex in Oliver’s group to disentangle the emission from different galaxies.

Your project will be to develop the XID+ modelling. The hyperspectral imaging and spectroscopy of PRIMA provide the keys to unlocking blended emission from multiple galaxies. You will extend XID+ to fully exploit this new information. You will test your methods on state-of-the-art galaxy evolution simulations. You will design the experiments that can be done with PRIMA and how they will be able to answer these fundamental questions.

While the focus is preparing for PRIMA, your PhD will also be exploiting the latest data sets from the best observatories including JWST, Euclid and Alma.  By applying XID+ to combine these novel data sets with the best current FIR and sub-mm data from e.g. Herschel and SCUBA-2  you will be able to explore the limits of our understanding of these science goals today. This will both demonstrate the power of the new methodologies you are developing and set the priorities for new investigations with PRIMA.

An indicative plan for the PhD programme is below, but this will be developed and refined by you with your supervisor’s help. Each sub project is expected to take around one year and result in one or two refereed journal papers.

Sub Project 1: A new determination of the star formation history of the Universe using XID+ hierarchically.

XID+ allows for the determination of the FIR properties of populations of galaxies directly from the map. This has not been possible until now due to computational constraints (now solved) and the limit of the short wavelength data. In this year you’ll apply XID+ to JSWT + Herschel surveys to determine the FIR luminosity function and infer star formation rate evolution.

Sub Project 2: Decomposition of AGN and Star formation activity in blended images

Building on our new, and not yet published, XID+SED technology you will develop XID+ methodology to apply spectral energy distribution (SED) modelling approach directly to images, rather than to catalogues.  This will allow decomposition of blended images of galaxies into their respective star formation and active galactic nuclei components. This new methodology will be tested on simulations for PRIMA and demonstrated on real data from the best available extra galactic surveys.

Sub Project 3: AGN and Star formation history, determined hierarchically

Building on sub project 1 and 2 you will determine the star formation and AGN activity in populations of galaxies hierarchically directly from survey imaging data, bypassing the usual catalogue steps. This new methodology will be tested on simulations for PRIMA and demonstrated on real data from the best available extra galactic surveys.

This PhD project will be funded by the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) and so the PG researcher will be eligible for all UKRI  PGR benefits.

Applicants who’ve applied to this project before will need to apply again.

All applications received by the deadline will receive full consideration.  Applications after the deadline will continue to be reviewed until the position is filled.

For more information on this project, please contact Prof. Seb Oliver.

Eligibility

Applicants must hold, or expect to hold, at least a UK upper second class degree (or non-UK equivalent qualification) in Physics, or a closely-related area, or else a lower second class degree followed by a relevant Master's degree.

This award is open to UK and International students.

Deadline

9 September 2026 23:00

How to apply

Apply through the University of Sussex on-line system. 

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/phd/apply/log-into-account

Select the PhD in Astronomy, with an entry date of September 2026.

In the Finance & Fees section, state that you wish to be considered for an STFC PhD in Astronomy. Please clearly state that you are applying for the project Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes Since Cosmic Noon with PRIMA under the supervision of Seb Oliver. In the title of your research proposal, please include the name of the studentship for which you are applying.

Due to the high volume of applications received, you may only hear from us if your application is successful.

Entry for this studentship can be January 2027 or May 2027.

The planned interview date for this studentship is Friday 11th September 2026.

Contact us

If you have practical questions about the progress of your on-line application or your eligibility, contact FoSEM-PGR@sussex.ac.uk

For more information on this project, please contact Prof. Seb Oliver.

Timetable

Please ensure you application includes each of the following:

• A statement of research interests. How your interests and experiences map
• Your CV
• Degree certificates and transcripts.
• 2 references, including a minimum of 1 from any institution studied at within the last 5 years.
• If your first language is not English you will need to demonstrate that you meet the University’s English language requirements. Our website provides detailed information on the English language tests we accept, as well as the countries that are exempt from the English language requirements.