Deakin Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment HDR PhD international awards in Australia, 2020

Applications now open. A PhD scholarship is available to initiate and conduct research on the topic ‘Population dynamics of shorebirds in peril’.

School OR Institute

School of Life and Environmental Sciences

Faculty

Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment

Location

Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus

Research topic

Among all long-distance migratory birds, the ~8M shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway have notably been hit hard by global change, with population declines up to 80%. The ARC funded Discovery Project “Are pollutants and emerging diseases endangering a global migratory flyway?” investigates the role of chemical pollution on disease susceptibility and survival in these shorebirds.
This will be done by using an extensive collection of blood and virus samples obtained from a wide range of shorebird species while they were spending the non-breeding season in Australia over the past nine years, along with 40 years of banding and re-sighting data (more than 500,000 observations).
The research project as a whole, which is a collaboration between Deakin University, Peter Doherty Institute (viruses), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (pollutants), Victorian Wader Study Group (banding) and Australasian Wader Studies Group (banding), aims to provide essential data for developing mitigation strategies to help curb the populations’ demise, while simultaneously informing on the effects of pollution on the role of migrants in disease spread.

This research is partially funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council.

Important dates

Applications will remain open until a suitable candidate has been found

Benefits

This scholarship is available over 3 years.

• Stipend of $28,106 per annum tax exempt (2020 rate)
• International students only:  Tuition fees offset for the duration of 4 years. Single Overseas Student Health Cover policy for the duration of the student visa.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible you must:

• be either a domestic or international candidate (domestic includes candidates with Australian Citizenship, Australian Permanent Residency or New Zealand Citizenship).
• meet Deakin’s PhD entry requirements
• be enrolling full time and hold an honours degree (first class) or an equivalent standard master’s degree with a substantial research component.

Please refer to the research degree entry pathways page for further information.

Additional desirable criteria include:

• Must have very strong computer skills, strong statistical skills and some R experience.

Click here to see how to apply!!