PhD Studentship: AI-Enabled Smart Spectroscopy Pixels: Revealing Microbial Responses to Antibiotics

Overview

This PhD studentship focuses on developing AI-enabled smart spectroscopy pixels to investigate microbial responses to antibiotics. The project unites physics, materials engineering, computer science, and bioscience to create new instruments that combine cellular precision, informative optical measurements, and compact design. The research extends the principle of using a quantum device, specifically a single two-dimensional perovskite photodetector, to encode wavelength and light intensity in its nonlinear electrical response, with a compact neural network recovering the information.

What you get

The studentship provides funding for tuition fees and a stipend of £21,805 per annum for the 2026/7 academic year. Supervision is supported by a Joint Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Doctoral Landscape Award, designed to support a coherent research program and the development of skills applicable to both academic and industrial research.

Requirements

The project offers training in quantum technologies, optical instrumentation, bacterial culturing, single-cell microfluidics, neural-network development, and rigorous experimental validation. The balance between creating bespoke sensors, interfacing them with living systems, and developing algorithms will be shaped by the doctoral researcher's interests and strengths.

Key dates

The closing date for applications is 2026-12-08.