[Coral-List] PhD Scholarship Opportunity in Coral Reef Restoration Project

[david abrego]

Dear Coral List,
There is a great opportunity to get involved in the Great Barrier Reef's Restoration and Adaptation Program. Can you please post the following add on coral list?
Cheers,
David

PhD Scholarship for project on coral reef restorationand adaptation

An exciting opportunity exists for amotivated student to work on a project within the Reef Restoration andAdaptation Program (RRAP, https://gbrrestoration.org/). RRAP is the world’s largestcollaborative research and development program to assess and test interventionsdesigned to help with protection, restoration, and adaptation of corals in theGreat Barrier Reef.

Project: The PhDcandidate will work on a project spanning two of RRAP’s subprograms (EnhancedCorals and Treatments; and Coral Propagation and Aquaculture). The overall aimsof the project are to assess the performance of early life stage corals insymbioses with a range of Symbiodiniaceae cultures and to optimize methods ofsymbiont infection at scale. The candidate will have access to a symbiontculture collection that includes experimentally heat-evolved strains and will havesupport from state of the art facilities and professional staff at theAustralian Institute of Marine Science to develop additional strains andculture methods. There is considerable scope for the candidate to exploreadditional research questions.

Eligibility: Thisopportunity is open to Australian or International applicants with demonstratedresearch experience in at least one of the following areas: studies involvingcorals or closely related taxa, micro-algal culturing, photo-physiology orother assays of physiological performance. The successful candidate will beoffered a PhD stipend (for a 3-year period at the Australian Research TrainingProgram rate; currently $28,597 per year, indexed annually). Australiancandidates as well as International candidates currently in Australia areespecially encouraged to apply.

Location: Thecandidate will be based at Southern Cross University’s National Marine ScienceCentre in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales under the primary supervision of Dr.David Abrego. The candidate will also spend considerable periods of time at theAustralian Institute of Marine Science and will have will have significantinteractions with the van Oppen lab at the University of Melbourne as well asother research groups working within RRAP at AIMS and SCU.

To apply: Pleaseprepare a single pdf document with a statement of interest in the position (1page), a brief CV with names and contact details of 2 referees (2 pagesmaximum), and an academic transcript. Applications and questions can be sent toDavid.Abrego at scu.edu.au. Deadline for applications is 13 November 2020.