Information for prospective group members

I am not currently taking on interns, visitors, MRes students, or remote supervision.

I am not currently considering PhD applicants.

Postdocs

I don't have general funds to support postdocs. Where there's a good match, I might support applications for fellowships (the School of Maths have a useful list), or we could consider writing a grant application together (e.g., with EPSRC), with you as a named researcher. Both options require considerable lead time, and require some luck.

You might look at any jobs with people in ELLIS.

For efficient and reliable deep probabilistic reasoning, you could check if Antonio Vergari’s projects currently have an open postdoc position.

PhD applicants

I am not currently considering PhD applicants.

Like most academics, I get a lot of email, and need to give time to my existing taught and research students. I’m not able to spend time on untargeted emails, and can normally only reply tersely to targeted emails. Sorry.

Other supervisors

You could consider other machine learning faculty in ANC, or research groups in ILCC or IPAB.

In particular for efficient and reliable deep probabilistic reasoning, I recommend looking at Antonio Vergari’s projects.

You could look at CDTs in Informatics or MAC-MIGS

Personal advice

You should ask yourself if you really want to get a PhD. If you’re anything like I was, you probably don’t know exactly what you’re getting yourself in for yet. The website shouldigetaphd.com has interviews with a variety of people. Some of the advice is quite US-centric, but it’s still useful. If you ask in your circles you’ll get different advice. Don’t just ask people who have PhDs.

Typically UK PhDs are short, 3 years. Getting out quickly can be an advantage: you can get on with your career if you leave academia, and if you stay as an academic you can spend more time as a (better paid) postdoc. It can be a rush however. Personally I had 4 years of funding for my PhD and, having come from a different field (Physics), felt that I needed it. I will usually only take people with an MSc degree, or other proven relevant research experience. Otherwise I suggest looking at applying instead to a four-year programme, such as in Informatics’ CDTs or MAC-MIGS.