Two Ph.D. scholarships are available in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) for research exploring the role of physical disturbances in structuring ecological communities.  The scholarships are available to both Australian and international students.  Students will be supervised by Dr. Josh Madin, whose research focuses in large part on modelling the effects of hydrodynamic disturbances (e.g., cyclones) on the biological and physical structure of coral reef communities.  Students will not be limited to working within coral reef systems, but rather will be encouraged to address related questions in coral reefs and/or other ecological systems.  The students will be joining a research group that uses data from many scientific fields in order to tackle broader-scale questions.  Therefore, students will also be encouraged to work on novel informatics techniques to aid in large-scale data integration and analysis.

It is anticipated that students will conduct fieldwork and explore modelling approaches in pursuit of their research questions.  For this reason, field experience and strong quantitative skills (including mathematical modelling, computer programming, and statistics) are desirable.  Please explore this website for information on Dr. Madin’s research interests and past/current projects.  Interested students should then contact Dr. Madin and include a complete CV (including relevant coursework, research experience, and any publications) as well as a brief summary of their research interests.