If you are interested in applying for a PhD studentship under my supervision, please make sure to read the notes below before contacting me. These explain the key aspects of the process, and should hopefully answer some of the questions that you may have.
Graham Hutton, University of Nottingham
Applicants are normally expected to have a first-class Masters or Bachelors degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science and/or Mathematics. In addition, I am looking for students to have a excellent ability and interest in the mathematical foundations of programming, together with experience of programming in a functional language such as Haskell, Agda or Coq. Most of the PhD students that I have supervised in the past did their final-year undergraduate project in a related area.
I'm also interested in applicants who are currently working in industry, but the above eligibility criteria still apply. The studentships are open to candidates of any nationality.
If you are interested in applying, please contact me by email as early as possible. I'm happy to discuss potential applications at any time of the year. Your initial email should include your reasons for potentially wishing to undertake a PhD with me, an up-to-date copy of your CV, your actual or expected degree class(es) and results of all your University examinations, and an example of your technical writing, such as a project report or dissertation.
If your background and experience looks suitable, I'll arrange a video meeting with you to discuss things further. If you are not too far away, it may also be possible to visit in person, and we can usually reimburse the costs for this. The nature of the process means that I can only support a small number of applicants per year. If I agree to support your application, you can then go ahead and submit a formal application by the January deadline. The formal application requires essentially the same documents as specified above.
Once the deadline has passed, all the formal applications
are then ranked by the School's Research Committee. The
primary basis for the ranking is the quality of the prospective
student, and I am seeking to recruit the best possible candidates.
Applicants in the area of functional programming are often
among the most highly ranked in the School.
My research interests are in the mathematics of program construction, interpreted in a broad manner. The aim of this area is to develop simple but powerful techniques for writing and reasoning about programs, by recognising and exploiting their underlying mathematical structure. Most of my work takes place in the context of functional languages such as Haskell, Agda and Coq, which provide ideal vehicles for research of this nature.
My list of publications and former students is probably the best guide to the kind of topics that I'm interested in. In recent years, I've worked on topics such as compiler correctness, program improvement, mechanised reasoning, infinite data structures, recursion operators, and category theory. But this list is not exclusive, and I'm open to supervising students in any area that connects functional programming with mathematical ideas in some way.
Some prospective students already have an idea about the kind of topic
they'd like to work on, but many do not, and this is fine. The first
year of the PhD is usually about finding a suitable topic and getting
up to speed with the current state-of-the-art in this area.
If your application is successful, you will be provided with full funding for your PhD studies, which comprises a stipend of around £18,500 per year and tuition fees. In addition, most PhD students gain some extra income by helping out with teaching, for example by assisting with labs, tutorials, coursework marking or exam marking. PhD students are required to live and work full-time in Nottingham. Part-time or remote study is not permitted.
If you have your own funding from an external agency or your own
personal funds, you will still be required to satisfy the same
eligibility criteria as other candidates.
A PhD provides 3-4 years of freedom to pursue a research topic to the point where you become a world-expert in this area. It's a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work, and requires a lot of self motivation and determination, as the majority of time will be under your own direction, with assistance and advice from myself. The best approximation to a PhD is probably your final-year undergraduate project. If you undertook a research-style project and obtained excellent marks for your dissertation, then you may enjoy a PhD studentship.
One important point to emphasise is that doing a PhD is not an extension of an undergraduate degree, as it's quite different in nature. As an undergraduate, you followed a programme of taught courses and assessment. As a PhD student, you'll be charting your own path on your own topic. The best advice I've heard in this regard was from my friend Conor McBride, who said "if you don't have the itch, don't scratch it". That is, if you don't have a strong desire to undertake original research, then don't think about a PhD. Undertaking a PhD should be driven by a real passion for the subject, not simply the desire to remain a student for a few more years.
In addition to regular supervision meetings, our research group
(the FP Lab) provides a range of activities to help support PhD students.
These include weekly research meetings (known as
'FP lunch' and 'Type Theory Cafe'), the Midlands Graduate School
(which all new students in the group attend), together with
regular research seminars and visitors. The group also has
funding to support students attending conferences, workshops
and summer schools.
More than 35 students have completed PhDs in the FP Lab in Nottingham, and you can view their dissertations here. These students have gone on to a wide range of careers, some remaining in academia as postdoctoral fellows or faculty members, and others applying what they have learned in industry at companies such as Facebook, Google and Standard Chartered.
Functional programming is a hot topic in both academia and industry, and PhD graduates from Nottingham are amongst the most highly sought after in the field.
Come and join us!