Centre for Operational Research, Management Science and Information Systems (CORMSIS)

CORMSIS PhD

Join CORMSIS, a top UK research group, to master optimisation, machine learning, and simulation. Conduct impactful research, collaborate with experts, and access cutting-edge facilities at the University of Southampton. Find your ideal PhD supervisor on our staff pages.

A PhD in OR helps develop proficiency in mathematical modelling, optimisation, machine learning, and simulation, enabling you to analyse and solve complex decision-making problems.

Pursuing a PhD in Operational Research (OR) or a related discipline at the Centre for Operational Research, Management Science, and Information Systems (CORMSIS) offers numerous advantages for individuals aiming to advance their expertise in decision sciences.

As one of the country’s leading research groups in the science of better decision making, CORMSIS provides a platform to conduct impactful research in areas such as optimisation, predictive modelling, machine learning, and simulation. The interdisciplinary nature of OR research at CORMSIS enables students to work on real-world challenges and gain valuable insights that are highly sought after by both academia and industry.

Additionally, CORMSIS is known for its strong connections with leading academic institutions and industry partners. As a PhD student, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with renowned researchers and gain access to industry collaborators, internships, and consultancy projects. The University of Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group and offers state-of-the-art facilities, including an HPC equipped with the latest H100 and A100 GPUs and high-performance CPUs, ensuring access to cutting-edge resources for rigorous and computationally intensive research in OR.

Browse our staff pages to identify and contact a potential PhD supervisor you would like to work with.

Dr Agnieszka Stefaniec PhD

Lecturer B in Management Science

Research interests

  • Shared mobility
  • Climate change
  • Transport applications of operational research

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Agnieszka

Professor Alain Zemkoho

Professor of Mathematical Optimization

Research interests

  • Bilevel and hierarchical optimization
  • First and second order numerical methods for continuous optimization
  • Nonsmooth and nonconvex optimization

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Behzad Hezarkhani

Professor in Operations Management

Research interests

  • Supply Chain Management
  • Logistics and Transportation
  • Mechanism Design and Contracting

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Bismark Singh PhD, SMIEEE, AFORS, FIMA

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Stochastic optimization, particularly chance constraints.
  • Applications to public health, renewable energy, and sustainability.

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Carlos Lamas Fernandez

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Operational Research
  • Cutting and Packing
  • Vehicle Routing

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Emeritus Professor Chris Potts

Research interests

  • Combinatorial Optimization, especially scheduling in production and transport
Connect with Chris

Dr Christina Saville MSc, PhD, AFORS

Lecturer in Healthcare Management

Research interests

  • Safe staffing
  • Operational research techniques applied to healthcare
  • Health workforce
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Professor Christine Currie

Professor of Operational Research

Research interests

  • Simulation optimisation
  • Healthcare management
  • Decision making under uncertainty

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Christophe Mues

Prof of Data Science and Info Systems

Research interests

  • Much of his research involves applications of predictive and prescriptive analytics in the area of credit scoring and consumer credit risk modelling. For example, he has researched advanced statistical or machine learning methods to predict Probability of Default (PD), Loss Given Default (LGD), i.e. the proportion of a loan that a lender is unable to recover if the borrower defaults, credit card balance at default, time to default (using survival analysis), and loan profitability.

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Edilson Arruda

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Healthcare modelling and optimisation
  • Optimisation under uncertainty
  • Markov decision processes

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Edilson