Each year we offer summer placements on a competitive basis for Royal Holloway Physics undergraduates to work within our research groups. The placements are open to all Physics students who are not currently in their final year. Priority is given to pen-ultimate year students (3rd years on MSci and 2nd years on BSc) but it is open to 1st years and 2nd year MSci students as well. When allocating the placement we will look at your academic performance, attendance and CV. The project supervisor will form part of the decision making process so we advise that you discuss projects that you are interested in directly with the supervisor.
Only Royal Holloway undergraduate students are eligible for these placements.
Assessment of the course: it is a requirement that an A1 pdf poster is produced detailing the research outcomes of the placement. The poster will be presented in a session in the Autumn term.
If you accept a summer placement you will agree to be available for any physics outreach events that occur during your placement (Open days, schools summer programmes etc), this is typically one or two days during a 6 week placement.
Award: £1000
The submission deadline is 30 April 2026
- To apply, email your CV (Subject Line: Physics Summer Placement) to Jana Checkley, Employability Advisor.
Email: Include a ranked list of placements that you wish to apply for within the body of your email. You will only need to submit one CV. You will be considered for each placement you identify in your list.
Successful applicants will be told in the first week of the summer term, a period of typically 2 weeks is given for you to accept. If the student who is first allocated the project does not accept we will offer to the next eligible student until we allocate all available funds.
The current list of project titles is given below, this list is continuously being updated and will appear on our website as soon as they become available. You will receive an email if any new projects are added. If you have an idea for a summer placement, or would like to work with an academic that is not currently in the list- discuss with them a project idea and the member of staff will need to contact Jana Checkley to have the project details added to the list of available projects (sometimes staff are happy to run summer projects if a keen student approaches them).
Analysing neutron scattering data of ferromagnetic quantum critical NbFe2
Philipp Niklowitz
Analyse neutron diffraction and spectroscopy data of the order and low-energy excitations of NbFe2, which is located at the border of ferromagnetism but also shows an emerging spin-density wave. Order emerging from magnetic quantum criticality is a concept relevant for other areas of solid-state physics including unconventional and high-temperature superconductivity.
- On campus preferred
- Flexible start date
- Prefer end of 2nd or 3rd year
- Pre-requisite: Solid State Physics, Python programming
- Duration: 6 weeks
Modeling a carbon free electricity grid for the UK
Veronique Boisvert
Analysing (using python) datasets from NESO containing past data on sources of electricity feeding the national grid, various scenarios are explored on how to make the grid carbon free under various assumptions.
- On campus or hybrid
- Flexible start date
- Prefer 3rd year
- Pre-requisite: PH3040 (preferred, not required)
- Duration: 6 weeks
