Geology (MPhil / PhD)

OUR RESEARCH CULTURE

As a research student, you will benefit from a vigorous programme of formal and informal research seminars, and close attention to research supervision. As well as working on your research project, you will also be encouraged to participate in a general training programme of lectures, workshops and seminars designed to provide methodological and theoretical frameworks for your research and structured according to Research Council guidelines. You will also be encouraged to attend lectures within the MRes programme and will have access to the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network.

The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Birkbeck has close links to the Department of Earth Sciences at University College London (UCL). Together, they form the Institute of Earth and Planetary Sciences, facilitating access to a wide range of research resources and expertise. Well-established links with other London colleges and the Natural History Museum provide ready access to further facilities in the capital.

In addition to standard equipment such as EMP, SEM and XRD and generous networked computing facilities, the Department has specialist laboratories and operates a worldwide fieldwork programme. Facilities such as the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) isotope geoscience laboratory at the British Geological Survey in Keyworth, ICP-MS facility at Kingston University and ICP-AES facility at Royal Holloway are also potentially available to research students. In the past, some research students have gone abroad to such places as Utrecht and Vienna to use specialist analytical facilities.