[Aqualist] PhD and post-doc opportunites, UOW

[Tim Barrows]

From: Allan Chivas <toschi at uow.edu.au>

UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG
SCHOOL OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES


A number of PhD and post-doc opportunities are available, following
recent successful applications for research and equipment grants.
The deadline for applications is 31 October and initial expressions
of interest need be received before Friday 26 October, when an
unrelated fieldwork campaign begins.

ONE.   We are seeking an enthusiastic student who has finished
Bachelor Honours, to undertake research towards a PhD on a project
dedicated to study the palaeoenvironments of the RAMSAR-listed
Macquarie Marshes, NSW, and disentangle natural vs human impacts
affecting the area.  This is a multidisciplinary project involving
the study of several proxies: diatoms (John Tibby, Adelaide);
macrophytes, charophytes, ostracods (Adriana Garcia, UoW);
microinvertebrates (Yoshi Kobayashi, NSW Dept of Environment and
Climate Change); sedimentology (Paul Hesse, Macquarie and Allan
Chivas,UoW); pollen, charcoal (Scott Mooney, UNSW); and geochemistry
(Allan Chivas, Adriana Garcia).  Your PhD will focus on OSL-dating of
sediment cores (with Bert Roberts, UoW), coupled with C-14, Pb-210,
Cs-137 dating in order to underpin important environmental events,
such as the establishment of bird colonies.
         You will use OSL to investigate these lotic/lentic systems,
and try to develop new methodologies using this technique.  Your
research will be open to other areas of investigation, possibly
geochemical.  To succeed, you will have a First Class Honours degree
in Geoscience or Environmental Sciences, preferably with physics and/ 
or chemistry as a component.
          Funds are available for 3 years (and specifically for a PhD
scholarship) from a grant awarded to Allan Chivas and Adriana Garcia
(UoW) by the NSW Environment Trust.  Supervisors for your PhD will be
Allan Chivas, Bert Roberts and Adriana Garcia.    Applicants should
also apply for an Australian Postgraduate Award by 31 October,
2007.   For further information, please contact Allan Chivas
(toschi at uow.edu.au, tel 02 42213263) or Adriana  Garcia
(adriana at uow.edu.au, tel 02 42215966).

TWO.  A post-doctoral position is available for one year in the area
of compound-specific carbon-14 dating of ancient DNA sequences from
permafrost areas of northern Siberia and the Yukon.  This would suit
a recently-completed PhD student with a strong background in an area
of geochemistry or chemistry.  The technology and developments
involved in this ARC-supported project are restricted to only half a
dozen labs world-wide, and present a strong opportunity for a
candidate to enter an important new field.  (Contact Allan Chivas).

THREE.  Additional PhD and Post-doc opportunities exist in several
forefront areas, including compound-specific C-14, as above, and also
in the area of clumped-isotope palaeoenvironmental research.  The
latter technology, available at perhaps one or two labs world-wide,
has been supported by an ARC-LIEF grant to a team from UoW, UQ,
UAdelaide, ANSTO and ANU, and will see the installation of a
specialised mass spectrometer at UoW at the end of 2007.  The
technology permits the unambiguous determination of
palaeotemperatures of carbonate minerals, irrespective of their
origin, and will revolutionise palaeoenvironmental research of both
near-modern and ancient carbonate materials (marine and non-marine
carbonate shells and tests, speleothem, soil-carbonate, etc).  For
background, see Ghosh et al.  2006.  C-13 - O-18 bonds in carbonate
minerals: a new kind of paleothermometer.  Geochim et Cosmochim Acta
70: 1439-1456.  (Contact Allan Chivas).