Research opportunities in Natural and Social Sciences are available for either full-time or part-time study.
The Department of Natural and Social Sciences, incorporates Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Landscape and Environmental Sciences and Social and Policy Sciences. It offers supervision of research degrees at both doctoral and master’s levels within and across these areas of study, as well as in pedagogic issues related to teaching and learning in these areas. Details of the research expertise of staff in each of these areas are provided on this page. Research degrees are carried out primarily through individual supervision.
All studies at higher degree level entail a survey and critical evaluation of existing knowledge in the approved area. Masters by Research and MPhil study must result in an independent contribution to knowledge and understanding of that area, whereas a PhD must also make an original contribution to existing knowledge.
Students receive an excellent level of academic support from the supervisory team, including individual tutorials combined with peer group seminars and discussions. The research environment is highly stimulating, with access to open programmes and seminars across the university. Students are encouraged to attend relevant conferences and, towards the later stages of studies, to give papers.
Training in Research Methods
All research students who have not completed a relevant Masters Degree, or other appropriate research methods training, are required to complete two core modules of the Master of Research (MRes).
Entry requirements
An Honours Degree of upper second class or above from a UK university (or an equivalent qualification) is normally required in a subject area relevant to your proposed research. In exceptional circumstances, the University will consider applications from mature non-graduates with experience of undertaking research. Registration is usually for MPhil or Master's by Research with possibility of transfer to PhD. Candidates with a recent Master's qualification in a relevant subject may register for PhD directly.
Staff offering supervision
Natural Sciences
David Booth BA PGDip PGCFHE MLI FHEA
Landscape architecture, urban landscape design, landscape reclamation, computer aided drafting
Bill Burford BA DipLa IOH FHEA
Landscape regeneration, garden design, social and therapeutic horticulture, trans-global design studio and digital storytelling
Professor Frank Chambers BSc PhD
Quaternary climatic change, peat stratigraphy, human impact on the landscape, environmental archaeology
Adam Hart MA (Cantab) PhD
The biology of social insects (wasps, bees and ants), evolution, ecology, animal behaviour
Brodie McAllister BA DipLA MLI FHEA
Landscape and design, site art, landscape architecture, urban design
Professor Lindsey McEwen MA PhD ARSGS FRGS FHEA
Floods including risk management, climate change and human alteration, river assessment and catchment management, postgraduate higher education
David Milan BSc MPhil PhD
Freshwater environments, fluvial geomorphology, sedimentation impacts on river systems
Rick Stafford BSc PhD
Evolutionary ecology, theoretical biology using computer simulations, rocky shore ecology
Bethan Stallwood BSc PhD
Cold adapted bacteria, bioremediation of contaminated land
Phillip Toms BSc PhD FHEA
Luminescence and radiometric dating, quaternary geochronology, quaternary science
Social Sciences
David Biggs CPsychol BSc DipIS MSc PhD
Non-traditional employment, occupational psychology, occupational health
Dianne Catherwood BA (Hons) PhD
Visual cognition with particular interest in infant and adult attention to the visual field
Julie Collins BSc PhD
Individual differences and the use of psychometrics, occupational psychology, flexible learning in higher education
James Derounian BSc MPhil MRTPI FHEA
Community development, public participation, rural regeneration, social issues in the UK and European countryside, new technologies in higher education
Pauline Dooley BEd Cert Ed MPhil
Theories of sex and gender, issues of equal opportunities, teaching and learning in higher education, policy and practice in education, fee-paying schools
Graham Edgar BSc CPsychol AFBPsS PhD
Cognition and perception, visual attention, trust, decision making and situation awareness
Tim Hall BA PhD FHEA
Cultural geography of urban places, public art in urban landscapes, media representations of the city, urban regeneration, geographies of urban mobility
Carol Jones PhD, PgDip (in Social Research), BA
Victims of crime, crime prevention and community safety, tourism and crime, environmental criminology
Professor Frank Leishman MA MSc MA Ed PhD
Comparative policing and criminal justice, drugs policy, media, crime and policing, policing policy and management, weather and crime
Kenneth Lynch MA PhD FHEA FRGS
Geography and development in Africa, rural, urban and peri-urban food production and marketing in developing countries
Kerry John Rees BSc MSc MSc PhD
Social cognition: the influence of values on self-perception/self-regulation through motivation, cognition, behaviour, and emotions.
Professor Colin Terrell CertEd MSc C(Ed) Psychol AFBPsS PhD
Developmental disorders, developmental cognitive psychology (eg intelligence/phonological awareness/automaticity and early reading)
David Turner BA PhD
Social inclusion and widening participation, improving public services, modernizing local government, citizenship
Phil Tyson BSc MSc PhD
Cognition, neuropsychology, clinical and health psychology