See research page for information on general research areas.

PhD Projects
The centre for ecology and conservation has a vibrant PhD student community with over 40 postgraduate research students and a larger number of MSc students

This project, open to UK students, and EU students resident in the UK for the previous 3 years, will investigate the possibility that wild insects have networks of places and/or other individuals that they interact with in a non-random fashion. An important issue in animal reproduction is to identify a mate that will maximise the fitness of the searching individual or their offspring. Many different cues have been identified that are used for both mate finding and mate choice, but we have no idea whether invertebrates may preferentially interact with a group of preferred conspecifics rather than simply encountering other individuals at random. This project will be integrated with a project we have to record the lives of every individual in a natural population of field crickets (Gryllus campestris) in a field in Northern Spain.  All individuals are tagged and DNA fingerprinted and a network of 100 video cameras records their movements and interactions (see www.wildcrickets.org).  The studentship will test hypotheses about movement, social interactions and behaviour in this unique study system.  It requires a highly self motivated, resourceful and ambitious student with a strong interest in evolution and behaviour, prepared to work in Spain for several weeks a year and not afraid of using quantitative techniques to analyse data. If this appeals to you get in touch with me NOW! This opportunity will be closing at the end of March 2012. Formal application details here.

General information about PhDs at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation

I am keen to supervise PhD projects on a broad range of evolutionary questions, particularly using insect model systems, getting funding for a PhD is increasingly difficult unless you have a wealthy Aunt. However, there are some opportunities listed on the University funding page.

Post-Doctoral opportunities
I am keen to collaborate with post-doctoral researchers interested in similar areas to myself. If you are a non-UK EU citizen you can apply for Fellowships from a number of organisations: consult NERC, BBSRC, Wellcome Trust, Royal Society and Marie Curie webpages for Fellowship eligibility and guidelines. If you are a non EU-citizen, you may be eligible for funding from Marie Curie, Royal Society, NSF International Research Fellowship Program (US only), Life Science Research Foundation (US only), Wellcome New Investigator and Human Frontiers programs. We are very keen to host research fellows. If you are thinking about writing a fellowship application and fancy working somewhere nice with a strong evolutionary ecology focus, drop me a line.

Drinking opportunities
In the autumn of 1836, Charles Darwin landed within sight of the Tremough campus, recording in his diary: 'On the 2nd of October we made the shore, of England; and at Falmouth I left the Beagle, having lived on board the good little vessel nearly five years. ' To celebrate this auspicious event the Centre for Ecology and Conservation hosts an annual Darwin Landing Lecture followed by a dinner at one of the restaurants favoured by Charles during his visit. This year, we are proud to be welcoming Professor Nick Davies FRS to give the Darwin Landing Lecture.