About the Project

Worm-like micelles give many liquid products their texture and stability. However, emulsified oil often disrupts this and imparts poor formulation stability. This fully funded EPSRC/Unilever IDLA PhD at Liverpool will uncover the mechanisms behind why some surfactant systems tolerate oil while others fail, combining formulation science, scattering, microscopy, rheology, and AI/ML, with hands-on industrial experience in a leading fast moving consumer goods company.

A fully funded PhD studentship in Soft Matter Engineering, supported by an EPSRC/Unilever Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award, is open at the University of Liverpool to investigate the structure and dynamics of worm-like micelles (WLMs) in isotropic liquid formulations and their interaction with emulsified oil phases. This project will deliver fundamental mechanistic insight into micelle–oil interactions across multiple length scales (nanometres to micrometres), enabling the molecular design of next-generation, sustainable liquid formulations relevant to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).