Higher Degree by Research Application Portal

PhD research opportunities in visual system, species descriptions, and functional morphology in the deep sea.

We have several scholarships available that are supported by the Ocean Shot project “Discovery in the largest frontier: advance imaging and genomics of open ocean animals”, which is funded by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.  The project is run by UWA in collaboration with Tohoku University, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Our aim is to accelerate the process of species discovery, classification, and documentation in the largest and least explored oceanic realm – the deep, open ocean or midwater.  We have four primary objectives, 1. Expediting species discovery, 2. Fast and accurate classification, 3. Understanding the role of newly discovered species in oceanic processes, and 4. building collaboration within the midwater science and engineering community. 

Biologists and engineers across 19 institutions are collaborating to develop new approaches to species discovery, description, and documentation. It is imperative that we not just discover new species, but build a basic picture of their biology to make them accessible to new research.  We use a range of ship-board tools and techniques and focus on their visual systems as a window into how animals interact with their environments and communities.  

We are looking for several outstanding PhD candidates interested in developing projects within this context. We focus on techniques such as modelling, anatomy (including 3D micro-CT), electrophysiology, and behaviour to gather high-quality, biologically meaningful data about the morphology and sensory systems of novel specimens using innovative in situ and ex situ imaging and sampling systems. We would like to hear from you if you have experience and/or serious interest in the above approaches and are excited to working in a large team to bring light to this underexplored habitat. 

We are looking for motivated students with a background in biological sciences, neuroscience, sensory biology, physiology, or evolution. 

We have positions for both domestic and international students

Send us your application with a CV, academic achievements, your interests, and an outlook of where you would like to be in 4 years time 

Professor Jan Hemmi (jan.hemmi@uwa.edu.au)