The Rost Lab is an experimental condensed matter group. We are always interested in hearing from students and researchers interested in studying the physics of quantum materials utilising bespoke state-of-the-art instrumentation.
Group leader
Dr Andreas W. Rost — School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews; member of the Centre for Designer Quantum Materials. Office 333, Physical Sciences Building. Email: [email protected]. Profiles: University staff page · Research Portal (Pure) · ORCID 0000-0002-1688-4109.
Current members
The current list of group members can be found here: Dr Rost’s University staff page.
Alumni
PhD graduates
- Dr Maximilian T. Pelly (PhD 2026) — High precision thermodynamic measurements and their application to quantum materials. Thesis
- Dr Ayanesh Maiti (PhD 2026, jointly supervised with Prof A. P. Mackenzie, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden) — Uncovering the intrinsic properties of the overdoped cuprate Tl2Ba2CuO6+x using microscale techniques.
- Dr Zhenhai Hu (PhD 2026, jointly supervised with Prof A. P. Mackenzie, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden) — Uniaxial stress tuning and high-sensitivity probes for unconventional superconductors.
- Dr Mari C. Cole (PhD 2024) — Coulomb blockade thermometry-based nanocalorimetry and its application to CeRh2As2. Thesis
MSc(Res) students: Juntian Peng
Former research fellows: Dr Craig V. Topping, Dr Max Pelly, Dr Soumendra N. Panja, Dr Shyam Sundar.
Former undergraduate project students: C. Bruce, M. Burgess, A. Ceban, P. Cheung, M. George, F. Greig, P. Hawthorne, J. Hepburn, P. Hogan, M. Holtzman (with the Wahl group), E. Laviale, M. Littmann, C. Jack, K. Jones, C. O’Neil, J. Peng, T. Rosas, J. Walker.
Join the group
Undergraduate final-year and summer projects
We are always happy to host final-year and summer projects. Projects typically involve hands-on work with our low-temperature instruments — building or characterising a measurement setup, writing instrument-control or analysis code, or measuring a new material — and are tailored to the student’s interests. St Andrews physics students should contact Dr Rost directly to discuss possible topics.
PhD projects
PhD projects in the group combine instrument development with the physics of quantum materials: microcrystal calorimetry, elastocaloric and uniaxial-stress measurements, quantum oscillations and transport, and the study of new superconductors and magnets. All students join the SUPA graduate school; some projects are run jointly with the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden through the IMPRS for Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials. Application deadlines for funded places are set by the School of Physics and Astronomy and typically fall early in the calendar year for September entry. Prospective students are encouraged to get in touch well before applying.
Postdoctoral positions and fellowships
Funded postdoctoral positions are advertised on the University of St Andrews jobs pages when available. We also welcome enquiries from researchers who would like to apply for an independent fellowship — for example Royal Society, UKRI, Leverhulme or Marie Skłodowska-Curie schemes — with St Andrews as host institution.
For informal enquiries about any of the above, please email [email protected].
Page last reviewed: September 2026.
We are currently looking for new group members with positions available at all levels:
- PostDoc Positions
- PhD Projects – Deadlines in January
- Final Year Projects