PhD projects available

I currently have a range of cool PhD projects available, and am always happy to talk to potential students interested in joining my group. Scholarship applications (>AU$26,000 per year, possibly plus top-up of $7,500) usually close on 31 August (for international candidates) or 31 October (for Australian and New Zealand citizens); however other opportunities can exist from time to time, so if you are interested in the projects outlined below, please contact me at any stage.

Doing a PhD in biogeography is fascinating, and can take you to some amazing places. This photo shows me during my PhD, on sub-Antarctic Marion Island (2007).

GENERAL PROJECTS AVAILABLE:

If you are looking for a PhD project, are excited by evolutionary biology (including Antarctic biology / phylogenetics / eDNA / biodiversity / past climate change / parasitology / earthquakes and volcanoes and other things that go bump in the night), have a first-class Honours, Masters or equivalent, and are interested in the sorts of research I am doing, please contact me at least a few weeks before scholarship deadlines (as above) to discuss options.

Projects include (but are not limited to):

- assessing the potential for biological dispersal into Antarctica

- assessing the impacts of major disturbances (such as earthquakes) on biodiversity (particularly genetic diversity)

- assessing whether birds and mammals use geothermal areas to rid themselves of parasites

- examining the evolutionary history and dispersal capacity of Antarctic plants (see below)

- using diverse sub-Antarctic organisms to test whether dispersal and reproductive capacity influence density-dependent processes underpinning spatial genetic structure

The Australian National University is the top-ranked university in the Southern Hemisphere (QS rankings 2017), and Canberra is an ‘easy living’ city with ~400,000 people, hardly any traffic and a big lake, and is less than two hours’ drive to some of the best beaches in the world and to the ski fields of the Snowy Mountains.

Dr Katie Moon graduated recently. Here she is (right) at her graduation, in a selfie with me and our illustrious VC (and Nobel Prize winner) Prof Brian Schmidt.