MSc by Research in Computational Chemistry and Chemical Physics

University of Leeds

Studying for an MSc by Research can be an excellent opportunity to develop your intellectual and research skills and your academic interest in a particular field. The MSc by Research is a 12-month research project (24 months part-time). It is distinct from our taught Masters programmes which involve taught courses that are formally assessed with part of the year spent on a research project. With support from your supervisors, you’ll work full time on planning, implementing and writing up a research project for your MSc by research. You will be supervised by at least two members of academic staff and will be encouraged to submit your work for publication where appropriate.At its most fundamental, chemistry is the ‘art’ of transforming one molecule into another. This research group builds on the foundations laid by physicists and chemists in the 20th century, by striving to understand, model and control atomic and molecular motion in chemical reactivity. Modern experimental probes used in our group include, terahertz spectroscopy, which looks at collective molecular motions in condensed phase, as well as velocity map imaging and femtosecond spectroscopy, probing chemical reactions involving a small number of atoms with quantum state resolution and temporal resolution on the natural timescale of bond breaking. Novel computational and analytical methods for quantum dynamics are an equally important part of our work, complementing and often driving the experimental programme. Our long term research goals are to apply this knowledge to the study of much more complicated reactions and processes, building links with biology and quantum physics, as well as atmospheric and astrophysical chemistry.