PhD Projects Directory

Many funded PhD projects are available throughout the year. Some of these projects are in competition for funding with the other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be awarded the funding.

Department of Animal & Plant Sciences

Project title Supervisor Type Closing date
What mechanisms drive avian demographic and population responses to climatic change? Professor Ben Hatchwell & Dr Karl Evans NERC CASE Scholarship 5 March 2010
Cascading extinctions and the design of ecological risk indicators Dr Owen Petchey, Dr Philip Warren, Professor Tim Blackburn (ZSL) & Dr Ben Collen (ZSL) NERC CASE Scholarship with ZSL 31 March 2010
Computational modelling of the collapse of ecological communities Dr Owen Petchey, Dr Rich Williams (Microsoft Research Ltd.), Dr Gustav Delius (York), Dr Nick Worsfold (York) Competitive Project 31 March 2010

Department of Cardiovascular Science


Project title Supervisor Type Closing date
To develop and evaluate a computational wokflow for the personalisation and optimisation of an intervention called ‘cardiac resynchronisation therapy Dr Rod Hose EPSRC 22 Feb 2010

School of Clinical Dentistry


Project Title Supervisor Type Closing Date
School Scholarship - One studentship is available from amongst a series of projects in the areas of infection, oral neuroscience, materials science, and social and behavioural sciences Various Competitive Project 28 February 2010
The role of miR196 in the control of Hox gene expression in head and neck and lung cancer Dr K Hunter & Dr D Lambert Competitive Project 28 February 2010
Tissue engineering hypertrophic cartilage for bone repair and reconstruction Dr A Crawford & Professor PV Hatton Competitive Project 28 February 2010

Department of Geography


Project title Supervisor Type Closing date
Antarctic ice streaming: exploiting flow signatures to understand processes Professor Chris Clark Competitive Project Open
Long-term landscape evolution in the North Atlantic region: testing the ICE (isostacy-climate-erosion) hypothesis using in situ and detrital thermochronometry Dr Darrel A Swift Competitive Project Open
Climate change signatures recorded in the 3-D shape of mountain glaciers Professor Chris Clark Competitive Project Open
Climate-related feedbacks in cryoconite ecosystems upon an Arctic ice cap Dr Andy Hodson and Dr Carl Bøggild Competitive Project Open
Climatic controls on mineral dust plumes emanating from Patagonia Dr Robert Bryant and Professor Grant Bigg Competitive Project Open
Dynamic Modelling of Land-Degradation Processes Professor Tony Parsons and Professor John Wainwright Competitive Project Open
Dynamics of Strombolian Volcanism Dr Andrew McGonigle Competitive Project Open
Evaluating climate change and air-sea interaction in Macronesia Dr Edward Hanna and Professor Grant Bigg Competitive Project Open
Evaluating daily pressure variability and storminess climate in global climate model simulations Dr Edward Hanna, Professor Grant Bigg and Dr Julie Jones Competitive Project Open
How has Greenland Ice Sheet mass balance changed during 1892-2008 and how can we use this information to interpret recent (1990s/2000s) aircraft/satellite ranging data of the ice-sheet surface? Dr Edward Hanna and Professor Chris Clark Competitive Project Open
Luminescence of sediments in present and past glacial systems Dr Darrel A Swift and Dr Mark D Bateman Competitive Project Open
Mars polar processes and landforms Dr Felix Ng Competitive Project Open
Origin and significance of englacial thrusting in temperate ice masses Dr Darrel A Swift Competitive Project Open
Parameterizing soil-erosion models using laboratory experiments Professor John Wainwright and Professor Tony Parsons Competitive Project Open
Putting the Pulse on Air-Sea-Climate Interactions in the Northern North Atlantic Dr Edward Hanna Competitive Project Open
The impact of environmental change on Atlantic cod Professor Grant Bigg and Dr John K. Pinnegar (CEFAS) Competitive Project Open
The influence of the Pacific-South American teleconnection pattern on Antarctic Peninsula climate Dr Julie M Jones Competitive Project Open

Interdisciplinary Research Projects

      
Climate change and the future of conflict in Central Africa Professor Grant Bigg (Geography) and Dr Juergen Zimmerer (History) Competitive Project Open
Human and Physical Feedbacks of Biomass Burning in Southern Africa Professor Grant Bigg, Dr Chasca Twyman and Dr Robert Bryant Competitive Project Open
Impacts of Socio-economic change on land degradation in the American Southwest Professor John Wainwright , Dr Christina Prell (Sociological Studies) and Professor Tony Parsons Competitive Project Open

Department of Human Metabolism


Project title Supervisor Type Closing date
Studies of gas ventilation, diffusion and exchange in the human lungs with Hyperpolarised Xenon gas MRI Professor Jim Wild MRC CASE with GE Healthcare Industrial Partners 1 May 2010

Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology


Project title Supervisor Type Closing date
Factors Regulating Endocytosis in the Model Organism S. cerevisiae Dr Kathryn Ayscough Competitive Project / BBSRC DTA Early applications advisable
NMR investigations of protein structure, molecular recognition, protein folding and self-assembly, prion diseases Professor Jon Waltho Competitive Project Early applications advisable
Cryo-electron microscopy/crystallography/image analysis of pathogenic bacterial endospores Professor Per Bullough Competitive Project Early applications advisable
Molecular and environmental control of stomatal development Professor Julie Gray Competitive Project Early applications advisable
Enzymes of chlorophyll biosynthesis Professor Neil Hunter Funded Studentship Early applications advisable
Structure, membrane organisation and function of photosynthetic complexes Professor Neil Hunter Funded Studentship Early applications advisable
Functional analysis of the exosome-associated protein Rrp47 Dr Phil Mitchell Competitive Project Early applications advisable
The use of protein crystallography to probe the structure/function relationships of biological macromolecules Professor David Rice and Dr Pat Baker Competitive Project / BBSRC DTA Early applications advisable
Cystatin C and Alzheimer’s disease Dr Rosie Staniforth Competitive Project Early applications advisable
Structure, dynamics and interactions of natively unstructured regions in signal transduction proteins Professor Mike Williamson BBSRC Studentship Early applications advisable
The transport of mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm in human cells Professor Stuart Wilson Competitive Project Early applications advisable
Microbiological and structural studies on gene regulatory proteins Professor Jeff Green and Professor Pete Artymiuk Competitive Project Early applications advisable

White Rose Scholarships


Project Title Supervisor Type Closing Date
Men and Violence: contextualising dangerousness in cultural transformations Dr Maggie Wykes, School of Law White Rose Scholarship 19 March 2010
Effective supply chains to support low carbon transport Professor Lenny Koh, Management School White Rose Scholarship 19 March 2010
Modelling Tumour – NK cell dynamics Professor Mike Holcombe, Computer Science White Rose Scholarship 19 March 2010
Anchored electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction Dr Julia Weinstein, Chemistry White Rose Scholarship 19 March 2010

Cross-Cutting Research Scholarships


Project Title Supervisor Type Closing date
3 PhD Scholarships in Infectious Disease Varied Scholarships 24 Mar 2010



12 March 10