Geophysics

Providing professional-level geophysics training and education to open up career opportunities across a number of industries and for future academic research.

The MSc Geophysics offers two distinct pathways with different combinations of courses for students commencing in September 2025.

Geophysics Pathway - designed for students interested in a career in a broad range of industries with advanced geophysics activities (primarily energy sector, environmental and construction sectors, marine exploration) or in geophysics research (through PhD). Energy Resources Geophysics Pathway – designed for students interested in a career in the energy industry (either fossil fuels or renewables), consultancy, government or policy.

Developed on the back of a recognised need for qualified geophysicists within industry, this programme is hosted by the Department of Geology & Geophysics and is delivered by staff across the School of Geosciences supplemented by external experts. It equips students with the skills for careers in the energy transition, hydrocarbon and minerals exploration, renewable energy, environmental sciences, earth data science and machine learning, and associated service industries, or broader geophysics research.

This unique programme is designed to expose students to the theory and practice of modern geophysics, with an emphasis on cutting edge techniques for understanding and visualising the structure, dynamics and composition of the Earth from the near surface to the deep interior. The content is broad-based and integrative with a strong focus on the quantitative aspects of geophysical data analysis and interpretation, from conventional approaches such as inversion and signal processing, to data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

Here, you will learn from experienced geophysics staff and key industry experts, delivered in world-class facilities with dedicated teaching and study space and explore the theory of geophysics and its application to a multitude of research and industry problems across a variety of scales, via a curriculum that covers the broad fundamentals and new technologies.

We place specific emphasis on students gaining hands-on experience in using industry-standard software and acquiring geophysical data with our large pool of geophysics equipment (including broadband seismometers, seismic reflection/refraction, ground penetrating radar, resistivity tomography, magnetometers and differential GPS).