Recruitment & Admissions

Admissions Overview

The CEADs team is recruiting PhD students for Fall 2020 through the Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University, the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management at University College London, the Business School at the University of Edinburgh, and the Energy and Environmental Sciences group at the University of Groningen.

Research areas include climate change economics, energy and environmental policy, health and economic impacts of air pollutants, food-energy-water systems, the sharing economy, and the compilation and application of environmental input-output tables.

University College London and the University of Edinburgh can provide full scholarships for outstanding applicants, covering GBP 15,000 to GBP 20,000 in annual tuition fees and GBP 14,000 to GBP 17,000 in annual living expenses.

The University of Groningen charges no tuition fees and may provide outstanding candidates with living expenses of up to EUR 22,000 per year.

Requirements

The Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University admits outstanding direct-entry PhD candidates from undergraduate programs through an application-review system. Please refer to the Tsinghua University graduate admissions prospectus and the department summer camp announcements for details.

Admission requirements for University College London, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Groningen are as follows:

1. A master degree, obtained before August 2020.

2. IELTS 6.5 overall, with no component below 6.0.

3. Applicants with backgrounds in mathematics, economics and environmental science will be given priority.

4. Excellent teamwork skills.

Interested applicants should send the following materials to the email addresses below as early as possible:

z.mi@ucl.ac.uk

jing.j.meng@ucl.ac.uk

y.shan@rug.nl

The application deadline is November 30, 2019.

Application materials:

1. A one-page self-recommendation letter.

2. Curriculum vitae, in Chinese or English.

3. IELTS score report, or other proof of IELTS 6.5-level English proficiency.

University Profiles

Tsinghua University is directly administered by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and is a member of the Double First-Class initiative, the Asian Universities Alliance, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, and the Tsinghua-Cambridge-MIT Low Carbon University Alliance. Tsinghua is one of the most renowned universities in China and Asia. In the US News 2020 Best Global Universities ranking, Tsinghua ranked 36th worldwide and first among universities in mainland China.

Earth system science is an emerging interdisciplinary field developed to study global change, and it is now an important and active area of scientific research. To study the changing patterns of the Earth system and the impacts of human activities, Tsinghua University established the Center for Earth System Science in March 2009 and formally founded the Department of Earth System Science in November 2016. The department aims to explore new knowledge in atmospheric, terrestrial and marine Earth sciences, as well as related fields such as physics, chemistry, biology and socioeconomic studies, and to contribute to the security and sustainability of the global ecological environment.

University College London, commonly known as UCL, was founded in 1826 in London. It is a leading public research university and has long ranked among the world top universities. In the UK Research Excellence Framework, UCL ranked second in the United Kingdom, behind only the University of Oxford. It is the founding college of the University of London and is often grouped with the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Imperial College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science as one of the G5 universities. UCL is also a member of the Russell Group and other leading university alliances. Its alumni and staff include Nobel Prize winners, Fields Medalists, scientists, political figures and cultural leaders.

The University of Edinburgh is a world-renowned public research university in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United Kingdom. The university ranked 20th in the 2020 QS World University Rankings. Its alumni and faculty include Nobel laureates, a Fields Medalist, Turing Award winners and former British prime ministers. Many influential figures, including David Hume, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Thomas Bayes, Alexander Fleming, Max Born, Arthur Conan Doyle and Winston Churchill, studied or worked there.

The University of Edinburgh Business School, part of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, has a history of nearly a century and is among the leading business schools in the United Kingdom.

The University of Groningen, founded in 1614, is one of the oldest universities in Europe and is widely recognized as a global top-100 comprehensive university. Since the seventeenth century, it has trained many distinguished scholars and public figures, including Nobel laureates, pioneering scientists, the first female university student in the Netherlands, the first Dutch astronaut and the first president of the European Central Bank.

The Energy and Environmental Sciences group at the University of Groningen brings together leading experts in energy, environment, climate change and ecology, including Professor Klaus Hubacek. The group provides a strong academic platform and emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration with other schools and departments, including work with leading input-output economists. It is committed to training high-level talent in global energy economics, climate policy and management.

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Supervisor Profiles

Professor Dabo Guan

Professor Dabo Guan is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom. His research focuses on the causes, impacts and responses to climate change, the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, and sustainable development pathways for low-carbon and low-resource consumption at global and national scales. His interdisciplinary work combining natural and social sciences is widely recognized. He has published more than 150 papers in high-impact SCI journals in the international environmental field, including more than 40 papers in Nature, Nature portfolio journals and PNAS. He and his collaborators have received the Leontief Prize three times. His 2014 PNAS paper received the Cozzarelli Prize, and his work was selected among the 100 most influential papers worldwide in 2018.

Dr. Xi Liang

Dr. Xi Liang is Associate Professor of Energy Finance at the University of Edinburgh Business School, Director of the Centre for Business and Climate Change, Secretary of the China Low Carbon Energy Action Network, and an Associate Researcher at the Electricity Policy Research Group at the University of Cambridge. He has extensive experience in asset management and investment consulting and holds Chartered Financial Analyst and Financial Risk Manager qualifications. His research focuses on energy project and energy system flexibility assessment, incentive design for greenhouse gas mitigation in China and the United Kingdom, and financing and risk management for emerging low-carbon technologies.

Dr. Zhu Liu

Dr. Zhu Liu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University and a recipient of the National Thousand Talents Program for Young Professionals. He has received honors including the Qiu Shi Outstanding Young Scholar Award and the German Green Talents Award, and previously worked at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. His research addresses key interdisciplinary issues in Earth system science and global change. He has published papers in Nature, Nature portfolio journals, PNAS and Science Advances, with many papers selected as ESI highly cited papers and influential Chinese academic papers.

Dr. Zhifu Mi

Dr. Zhifu Mi is an Assistant Professor at University College London, Executive Editor of Journal of Cleaner Production, and Associate Editor of Structural Change and Economic Dynamics. His research interests include climate change economics, energy policy and input-output analysis. He has published more than 50 SCI and SSCI papers in journals such as Science Advances, Nature Energy, Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications, including ESI hot papers and highly cited papers. He was named to the Forbes Europe 30 Under 30 list and has received multiple awards for sustainable development and high-impact research.

Dr. Jing Meng

Dr. Jing Meng is an Assistant Professor at University College London, a member of the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance, and Associate Editor of Journal of Cleaner Production. Her research covers climate change policy, the environmental and economic impacts of air pollution, and low-carbon technology innovation. Over the past five years she has published more than 60 papers, including more than 20 as first author or corresponding author, in journals including Nature Geoscience, Nature Communications, Nature Climate Change and Science Advances.

Dr. Yuli Shan

Dr. Yuli Shan is a Faculty Research Fellow at the University of Groningen and a contributor to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. He has received more than ten academic honors, including the German Green Talents Award and the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad. His research focuses on carbon emissions accounting and regional sustainable development. In recent years he has published more than 50 papers in Science, Nature portfolio journals and other leading international journals, including ESI hot papers, ESI highly cited papers and one paper selected among the 100 most influential Chinese academic papers.