Supervisors and their research areas for October 2026
Claudia Bonfio
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Research Area I am a chemist fascinated by one of the most fundamental questions in science: how did life first emerge from chemistry? In the lab, we investigate this transition by combining prebiotic chemistry, supramolecular assembly, membrane biophysics, and systems biochemistry to reconstruct the first steps that led to the emergence of living cells. We focus on lipids and membranes, essential but often overlooked players in the origins of life. Modern cells rely on a vast diversity of lipids, yet it remains unclear how such complexity arose in a prebiotic world without enzymes. We challenge the conventional view that early membranes were chemically simple, exploring instead how primitive lipids could have diversified spontaneously to give rise to dynamic membranes capable of fusion, division, and active transport. These properties may have been critical for encapsulating RNA and peptides, providing a platform for primitive biochemical evolution. In parallel, we investigate membraneless compartments, such as peptide/oligonucleotide coacervates, which can stabilise nucleic acids and enhance their reactivity. By studying both membrane-bound and membraneless systems, we aim to reveal how early compartments interacted, competed, and cooperated in shaping early life. Our approach is interdisciplinary and collaborative, blending chemical synthesis with biophysical characterisation. Ultimately, we aim to connect chemistry with biology in its earliest shapes and to provide the opportunity to train researchers who are excited to push disciplinary boundaries in pursuit of answers to life’s deepest secrets. Our research lies at the intersection of prebiotic chemistry, membrane biophysics, and evolutionary biology, with the central aim of understanding how primitive compartments enabled the emergence of cellular life. A particular focus is the diversity and chirality of lipids. We investigate how non-enzymatic lipid chemistry could drive the diversification of primitive membranes and enable functions such as fusion, division, and transport. Another strand of our work explores protoenzymes - short catalytic peptides that may have interacted with membranes, enhancing their dynamics and contributing to the first steps toward biological regulation. In parallel, we study coacervates as alternative compartments that can promote RNA stability and reactivity, offering complementary insights into prebiotic organisation. Project Interests PhD projects in my lab span from the synthesis and reactivity of ancestral lipids to the biophysical and microscopic characterisation of primitive membranes to systems-level studies of protocell functions. Students can expect to work in an interdisciplinary environment that encourages creativity, cross-disciplinary thinking, and collaboration. Our projects provide an opportunity to address fundamental questions about the origins of life while developing broad skills at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and physics |
Amy Bonsor
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Research Area My research focuses on composition in planetary systems. Composition is inherited from formation processes and determines planetary interiors, evolution and habitability. For most detected exoplanets, it is incredibly hard to find out what they are made from. Our group has a strong focus on white dwarf planetary systems. These faint remnants of stars like our Sun provide the perfect laboratory for studying explanatory composition. Spectroscopy of white dwarfs in the Gaia- era are key to providing bulk exoplanet compositions. These observations probe the geology and formation processes in exoplanetary systems. Our group considers the availability of material for origins scenarios for early Earth/exoplanets. Impacts and late delivery are important astronomical consideration for the early evolution of rocky planets. We use theoretical models to trace the journey of elements and molecules key to life into rocky planets. Project Interests I am interested in developing projects related to exoplanetary composition, from a theoretical or observational perspective. Options include spectroscopy of white dwarfs or stars, geochemical modelling for exoplanets, models for late delivery/impacts, debris discs, planetary dynamics, theory related to circumstellar environment of white dwarfs. |
Alex G. Liu
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Research Area I am a palaeobiologist whose research explores the origin and early evolution of animals, and particularly the Ediacaran biota, a group of organisms from ~579–539 million years ago that document the earliest stages of animal evolution and behavioural innovation. My research attempts to refine knowledge of how and when major animal body plans and behaviours evolved and diversified, and investigate the causes and consequences of the appearance of animals for the Earth System. To this end, my group describes and interprets body and trace fossils from global localities, and investigates aspects of taphonomy (fossil preservation), sedimentology (to reconstruct the environments inhabited by ancient organisms), and macroevolution (to identify and explain large-scale trends in diversification and extinction). Other active research areas include reconstruction of Neoproterozoic–Cambrian palaeogeography and palaeoclimate (including the timing and extent of glacial events), and the role of microbial biofilms in early animal ecosystems. My work is grounded in detailed field-based observations, but incorporates a variety of experimental, petrological, phylogenetic and big-data approaches, working in collaboration with an extensive network of national and international museums and research teams. Project Interests I am keen to co-develop palaeobiological projects on any aspect of early animal evolution, or the reconstruction of habitable environments through deep-time, where research could include:
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Emily Mitchell
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Research Area There are two areas of my research: palaeontological research of the early animal communities of the Ediacaran and the community ecology of marine benthic communities. Animals first appear in the fossil record during the Ediacaran time period (631-541 million years ago). It is during the Ediacaran that animals evolved some of their most important traits: most obviously large body-size but also tissue-differentiation, mobility, bilateral symmetry and ecosystem engineering (reef-building). The study of Ediacaran organisms is fraught with difficulties, because commonly-used morphological approaches have only limited use due to the unique anatomies of Ediacaran organisms. Fortunately, the preservation of Ediacaran fossils is exceptional, with communities comprised of thousands of sessile organisms preserved where they lived under a layer of volcanic ash. Therefore, the position of the fossil on the rock surface encapsulates their entire life history: how they reproduced and how they interacted with each other and their environment. Over the last ten years, mathematical ecological approaches have demonstrated how previously elusive biological details can be extracted from the Ediacaran fossil record. As such, ecological statistics provides a novel approach for investigating fundamental issues in early animal evolution. A key area of my research is on the dynamics of modern marine benthic community dynamics, identifying the key ecological interactions that drive benthic biodiversity, and understanding how these drivers may change as ecosystems are perturbed both biologically and environmentally. Key to my approach is looking beyond interactions just between pairs of taxa, but understanding how the community interacts as a whole, and how changes cascade through the ecosystem and effect different organisms in different ways. Currently, I am working to understand the community dynamics of Antarctic, deep-sea and tropical benthic communities. By reconstructing communities throughout the maturation processes, my group and I aim to understand how ecological interactions differ throughout community development and thus elucidate how such dynamics contribute to community structure, resilience and stability. Project Interests Within my palaeontological interests, I am interested in co-developing projects with students on two topics. First, for students with an Earth Science/Biology background, I would like to co-develop a project to investigate how different post fossilization processes impact our understanding of Ediacaran community ecology. Second, for students with strong computational/quantitative interests, we could co-develop a project using dynamic models of Ediacaran eco-evolutionary dynamics to investigate how difference processes influence Ediacaran evolution. For students with a marine ecology/biology background, I am interested in co-developing projects focussed on the community dynamics on either Antarctic, deep-sea or tropical coral and sponge communities. These projects would involve fieldwork (tropical) or video databases such as the AWI Pangea (Antarctica) to collect video data, which would then be used to construct 3D digital models from which community analyses can performed to investigate the key drivers that shape these benthic communities, and how they may change in the future. |
Nicholas Tosca
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Research Area My research focuses on the application of aqueous geochemistry and mineralogy to understand the processes that shape planetary surfaces and their environments through time. The molecular interactions between minerals and natural fluids drive many aspects of how our planet behaves as a system, now and in the distant past. The tools we use allow us to quantify and predict the response of Earth’s surface and subsurface to natural and anthropogenic disequilibria; they are applicable to a vast array of natural systems and important problems including global element cycles, the dynamics of planetary climates, and the habitability of modern and ancient environments. Our group integrates theory, experiments, and field-based observations to address problems including: the co-evolution of seawater chemistry and climate through Earth's history, the environmental conditions promoting the synthesis of molecular building blocks at the origin of life on Earth, the chemical evolution of natural waters on modern Earth, and unravelling the chemical evolution of ancient environments on the surface of Mars. We work in a highly collaborative environment with chemists, climate scientists, geologists, and engineers, and are involved in research collaborations including the Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe, and the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission. Project Interests I am interested in developing projects that address any fundamental problem across a wide range of the Earth and planetary sciences, including (but not limited to): aqueous geochemistry, mineralogy, Earth history, planetary sciences, or the origins of life on Earth (which has been a recent focus). Regardless of the problem, I am most interested in developing projects that incorporate a strong element of geochemistry and mineralogy, and projects can involve any combination of experimental, theoretical, analytical, or field-based work that best addresses the problem at hand and is aligned with the student’s interests |
Alexandra V. Turchyn
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Research Area Sasha Turchyn is an isotope geochemisty who does a range of aqueous environmental chemistry and geomicrobiology to explore all aspects of the carbon cycle over the course of Earth history. Her lab uses a combination of light stable isotope measurements, metal stable isotope measurements, aqueous geochemistry, incubations, numerical modelling and field work to determine how carbon moves through Earth's surface environment. Sasha's research is fundamentally focused on how the carbon cycle regulates itself over the course of Earth history and the key processes in the geological carbon cycle, from what controls the sources of carbon to Earth's surface environment and how carbon is mineralised and removed from Earth's surface environment. This involves a combination of analytical measurements and modelling with a strong emphasis on isotope ratios, which are partitioned during biological processes. The equipment we use for our analyses is maintained by us and we also strongly use the Godwin Laboratory for Paleoclimate Research and the clean lab facilities within the Department of Earth Sciences. Project Interests My research focuses on how the carbon cycle operates over the course of planetary history including the key reactions that supply and remove carbon from Earth's surface environment. I would be interested in supervising projects with students that explore any aspect of this, from the chemical reactions that remove CO2 from the surface, to how we reconstruct records of past climate change, to understanding how diagenesis impacts the preserved records in sedimentary rocks over geological time. Students with a more analytical or numerical background are equally welcome to discuss potential projects with me. |
Helen Williams
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Research Area My research uses novel isotope tools to fingerprint planetary processes operating across a range of length- and timescales including mantle heterogeneity on Earth and other planets, magma ocean crystallisation, core-mantle reactions and planetary accretion. I’m particularly interested in how all these processes may have shaped the chemical composition and internal structure of rocky planets and how interactions between planetary reservoirs over billions of years may have shaped the habitability of rocky bodies such as the Earth and Mars. In my research group we analyse a wide range of isotope systems using high-precision plasma mass spectrometry and we apply these isotope tracing tools to natural samples such as igneous rocks (ranging in age from nearly 4 billion years old to newly erupted volcanics), meteorites and experimental products. We take a multidisciplinary team-focused approach to research and collaborate with geophysicists, volcanologists, petrologists, geobiologists and planetary scientists. Collaborations and fieldwork, as well as laboratory work, mass spectrometry and other complementary analytical tools, all play an important role in our research. Project Interests I am enthusiastic about training and introducing students to isotope mass spectrometry and developing projects where isotope tracers may help us resolve fundamental questions in planetary evolution and habitability. Research questions my group is interested in include using isotope measurements to determine the nature and origin of the meteorite building blocks that accreted to form the Earth and other terrestrial planets, and the factors controlling in the redox state of planetary interiors and atmospheres, magma ocean processes on the Earth and other terrestrial planets. We are also keen to understand how the Earth came to become a habitable planet, from accretion, through to core segregation and the formation of its first crust and how these processes have governed the evolving chemistry of our planet over the last ~ 4 billion years and what this could mean for planetary habitability beyond our solar system. |
Mark Wyatt
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Research Area My research is into the planetary systems of nearby stars. Usually I approach this by studying the non-planet component, termed the star’s debris disk, made up of planetesimals (asteroids and comets) and the dust and gas that comes from them. This component is often readily detectable and provides a unique perspective on the architecture and evolution of the planetary system, for example providing the best information on planets beyond ~5au in many systems, as well as being a signature of recent giant impacts in others. This debris may also play a significant role in the origin of life, not least through its interaction with planets – in fact in the early phases these interactions are the mechanism by which planets grow, while in later phases this bombardment can alter the planet’s atmosphere and surface properties, also delivering ingredients and energy that may be key to life’s origins. Thus my research aims to understand this debris component and its evolution, as well as its diversity in the population of nearby planetary systems. It does so through observations of nearby stars, and their interpretation using models rooted in planetary system dynamics. In the LCLU context my aim is also to make connections to other areas, like planetary sciences, geophysical and atmospheric modelling, so that the consequences for life’s origins can be considered, and any predictions tested using a wider set of observations, such as of Solar system bodies. Project Interests I would be keen to supervise projects that fall within the remit of any of the areas outlined above. Some examples of areas to consider developing projects in include: modelling the delivery of cometary material to the Earth and its effect on conditions on the planet surface, demographics of the planetary systems of nearby stars and implications for exo-Earth characterisation, exchange of debris between planets and between planetary systems.
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