Financial support of IAE PhD students

University of Canberra Australian Postgraduate Award (UC APA) Scholarship

Students who have received a 1st Class Honours Award or equivalent from an Australian University may be eligible to receive an APA scholarship from the University of Canberra, worth up to $22,860pa, tax free (2011 rate) for up to 3.5yrs to complete their doctoral studies.

$10,000 pa IAE Doctoral Scholarship Top-Up

The IAE Doctoral Scholarship Top-Up is competitively awarded as a 'top-up' of up to $10,000 pa to IAE PhD candidates who hold a stipend from some other source (eg, UC APA scholarship, international scholarship or employment scholarship.

PhD students who receive the IAE Top-Up in addition to the UC APA will be amongst the best paid PhD students in Australia receiving up to nearly $33,000 pa, tax free for up to 3.5yrs.

Download a PDF flyer with more information.


Potential PhD projects

Below is a list of potential IAE PhD projects. Please contact the IAE if you are interested in any of these PhD projects or, alternatively, if you have an idea for a relevant project you would like to discuss with a potential supervisor.

Climate change, water temperature and ecological responses

Supervisor: Dr Fiona Dyer, Dr Evan Harrison, Mark Lintermans   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2452

The potential impact of climate change on water quantity has received attention locally an internationally, yet relatively little is known about the effects of climate change on water quality and ecological responses. This project could explore the potential changes in water temperatures associated with climate change and identify the consequences for aquatic ecological communities. Experiments that identify thresholds at which behavioral (eg breeding) or morphological responses occur could be conducted.

Conservation genetics of hawksbill turtles from the male perspective

Supervisor: Dr Nancy FitzSimmons   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2237

This PhD project will investigate the genetic structure of hawksbill turtle populations at nesting sites and feeding grounds using nuclear genetic markers and determine male contributions within populations by studying mating systems at selected rookeries.

DNA detection of wildlife in Tasmania from trace samples (x2 Scholarships available through the Invasive Animals CRC)

Supervisor: Professor Stephen Sarre   Email:    Phone: (02) 6206 5657

We are developing DNA markers specific to targeted individual prey species as part of an IA CRC funded project work to detect prey in the faeces of Tasmanian mammalian predators. In addition, we aim to use Next Generation Sequencing to identify multiple taxa in single scats. This approach could detect DNA from many species (including non mammal prey species such as reptiles, birds, and invertebrates) simultaneously and will provide the potential for all species present in the scat DNA to be detected. Our eventual goal will be to use the data generated by applying these DNA based approaches to a broad-scale scat collection in eastern Tasmanian and develop predator prey models for those vertebrate communities present. We are seeking two students who will work alongside a postdoctoral fellow on different aspects of the project.

Discovering candidate sex determining genes in a reptile with genetic and temperature dependent sex determination

Supervisor: Associate Professor Tariq Ezaz   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2297

The aim of this project is to carry out targeted and intensive molecular and functional characterisations of candidate sex determining genes in the model reptile, the central bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps) in order to identify key sex determining genes in this species and to use this information to dissect evolutionary mechanisms initiating sex chromosome differentiation within reptiles.

The prospective candidate should have experience in routine molecular genetics and cytogenetics, evolutionary genetics and genomics techniques including basic knowledge with Next Generation Sequencing approaches and analyses. The prospective candidates are expected to have demonstrated capacity to learn new techniques and skills necessary for the successful completion of the project. Candidates with previous experience in working on molecular aspects of sex determination in non model species will be advantageous but not essential.

Evidence based decision making

Supervisor: Dr Evan Harrison, Professor Trefor Reynoldson, Dr Fiona Dyer   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2452

Establishing cause and effect is fundamental for confident decisions in environmental management where much effort and large sums may be expended, and where there are often tangible winners and losers from decisions. Environmental science currently lags behind medical research, in the systematic assessment of evidence to improve management outcomes through increased confidence in causal inferences. This project will research and develop an approach to facilitate evidence-based evaluation in environmental management, and provide a mechanism to make better use of the extensive published research. This research will not only advance science but also has the strong potential to drive the way in which environmental assessment is done in the future.

Evolutionary ecology of invasive wild radish populations in Australia

Supervisor: Assistant Professor Paul Downey (UC) and Professor Andrew Young and Dr Jenny Pierson (CSIRO)   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2169

The evolutionary basis of invasiveness in weeds is a rapidly developing area of theoretical and empirical research. In this project, you will explore possible mechanisms that generate invasiveness using wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) as a model system. You will use a phylogeographic approach, incorporating both chloroplast and SSR markers, to ascertain the global colonisation history of wild radish and relate this to the evolution of invasiveness in this highly successful weed. This study should increase our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary significance of several possible mechanisms that generate invasiveness and should result in 3-4 high quality research papers.

This 3 year studentship would be co-located at the University of Canberra and the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry. At CSIRO the student would work with Professor Andrew Young and Dr Jenny Pierson and at the University of Canberra with Assistant Professor Paul Downey.

Feral horses in the Australian high country

Supervisor: Professor Jim Hone   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2979

The Australian Alps Liaison Committee (AALC) is providing an opportunity for a PhD student to study feral horses. The project will focus on evaluating methods of estimating the abundance of feral horses using a variety of simple, practical methods. The project will study horses in and near the Australian high country. Experience with domestic or feral horses and population estimation are an advantage.

Applicants can send an expression of interest to Jim Hone, with a current CV.

Genetic bar coding: Applying invertebrate bar coding to routine rapid bioassessment

Supervisor: Dr Fiona Dyer   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2452

The use of macroinvertebrates for river health assessment is routine across Australia, particularly within the MDB. The sorting and identification of samples is often the biggest bottleneck in bio-assessment procedures. In addition, the identification of macroinvertebrates requires specialist training and is potentially the greatest source of error in health assessments. Genetic bar coding of invertebrates, has the potential to speed up the process and also increase the accuracy of assessment.

Geochemical processes in the Cobar terrain

Supervisor: Professor Ken McQueen   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2520

The Cobar terrain in western New South Wales is of significant economic interest because of its mineral resource potential and also its location within the Murray Darling Basin. The terrain retains a large chemical landscape component related to deep weathering during the Cenozoic. This project will investigate the processes, particularly the hydrogeochemical pathways, that have led to the present distribution of geochemical components within the regolith of the region.

Landscape evolution of the upper Shoalhaven catchment

Supervisor: Professor Ken McQueen   Email:    Phone: (02) 6210 2520

This project will investigate the landscape history and regolith evolution of the upper catchment area of the Shoalhaven River in eastern New South Wales. This area contains important clues to the geomorphic and climate history of eastern Australia. The study will have important implications for current gold exploration in the region and for water resource issues.

Magnitude of temperature changes since the last ice age in Australia

Supervisor: Dr Duanne White   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2083

Most of the evidence used to reconstruct Australian paleoclimate cannot distinguish between changes in temperature or rainfall. This project will use newly drilled boreholes, and a new thermal conductivity scanning technique, to gain a direct measure of paleotemperature changes across the Australia since the last ice age. This information will improve our understanding of the response of Australian landscapes to past climate change, and improve the accuracy of future climate projections in Australia.

Marine turtle genetic lineages and their ability to respond to climate change

Supervisor: Dr Nancy FitzSimmons   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2237

This PhD project will combine field work, lab-based incubation experiments and genetic analyses to investigate historical constraints on the capacity for turtle populations to respond to climate change.

Retreat of the ice sheet in north-east Greenland since the last ice age

Supervisor: Dr Duanne White   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2083

Most numerical climate models predict that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be lost if global temperatures rise by as little as 2-3°C. However, present ice models do not accurately predict the rate at which ice loss may occur during the next few centuries, and hence, the contribution of the Greenland ice sheet to global sea level rise. This project will investigate the magnitude and rate of ice loss following the last ice age in a little explored sector of the ice sheet, providing real-world evidence of the response of the ice sheet to large-scale warming in the past.

Sediment recycling in Antarctic ice-free areas

Supervisor: Dr Duanne White   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2083

Cosmogenic nuclide dating is the technique best suited to dating past changes in the Antarctic ice sheet. However, the accuracy of the technique is presently limited by recycling of sediments deposited during previous interglacial (warm) periods. This project will use a variety of new geochemical techniques to investigate how much sediment found in ice free areas in Antarctica was deposited 'fresh' since the last ice age.

Sediment thresholds

Supervisor: Dr Evan Harrison, Dr Fiona Dyer   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2452

Relatively small amounts of sediment in streams can have a significant effect on the macroinvertebrate communities. This project could involve both laboratory and field experiments testing behavioural macroinvertebrate responses to fine sediment accumulation.

The use of telomere length in conservation ecology

Supervisor: Assistant Professor Bernd Gruber, Assistant Professor Tariq Ezaz, Professor Stephen Sarre   Email:    Phone: (02) 6206 3804

Currently a major interest has been the finding that telomere length can be linked to longevity and fitness (linked to environmental factors) in many animals including in humans. Potentially telomere length can be used as an indicator on the state of population. This project will apply telomere Q-PCR and advanced molecular cytogenetic techniques to explore the relationship between population size and telomere length in endangered reptiles such as the velvet gecko in the Western Australian Wheatbelt.

Urban lake ecology

Supervisor: Dr Fiona Dyer   Email:    Phone: (02) 6201 2452

Infrastructure is currently being implemented in the ACT to allow extraction of water from urban lakes and ponds. This will result in a fundamental change to the water level regimes experienced by the urban lakes. This provides a unique opportunity to study the ecological or biogeochemical processes that occur as the water level regime is varied.