Academic and Postgraduate opportunities

The ZSL Institute of Zoology is a partner organisation in several NERC Doctoral Training Programmes. For more information on the programmes with University College London and Imperial College London, please refer to the following sites:

University College London: http://london-nerc-dtp.org/
Imperial College London: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/education/science-and-solutions-for-a-changing-planet-dtp/

Current PhD opportunities with ZSL and Imperial College

The following PhD studentship projects are currently available under the 'Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet DTP' scheme with Imperial College. Applications must be submitted by the 16th January 2017 for the October 2017 start. For more information, please contact the named supervisors or visit the DTP homepage.

Mitigating wildlife disease: elucidating the ecological and evolutionary strategies of chytridiomycosis for disease management

ZSL supervisor: Trenton Garner - trent.garner@ioz.ac.uk
Imperial supervisor: Matthew Fisher - matthew.fisher@imperial.ac.uk

Emerging infectious diseases, interacting with climate change, are profoundly affecting global biodiversity. The chytrid fungal pathogen has devastated many amphibian populations, but its virulence varies enormously between species and sites. This PhD will combine fieldwork and molecular sequencing to explore genetic and phenotypic components of chytrid virulence. PhD Project Description - Mitigating wildlife disease... (125.38 KB)

Do climate and land use changes interact to precipitate biodiversity loss?

ZSL supervisor: Nathalie Pettorelli - nathalie.pettorelli@ioz.ac.uk
Imperial supervisor: Cristina Banks-Leite - c.banks@imperial.ac.uk

Climate and land use changes are major threats to biodiversity, but interactions between the two are poorly understood. The W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) region of West Africa provides an opportunity to explore such interactions across a climatic gradient and a patchwork of land uses. This PhD will analyse satellite and ground survey data to quantify impacts of climate and land use change in the WAP region.

PhD Project Description - Do climate and land use change... (113.78 KB)

Socio-economic opportunities for habitat restoration in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil with co-benefits for local livelihoods

ZSL supervisor: Piero Visconti - piero.visconti@ioz.ac.uk
Imperial supervisor: Morena Mills - m.mills@imperial.ac.uk

Conserving biodiversity in highly populated landscapes demands approaches which yield cobenefits for people and wildlife. Novel methods such as scenario back-casting and diffusion of innovation theory can identify the approaches most likely to provide such cobenefits. This PhD will use such methods to identify socio-economic pathways for restoration of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.

PhD Project Description - Socio-economic opportunities... (113.68 KB)

Tuberculosis in cattle and badgers – the role of environmental transmission

ZSL supervisor: Rosie Woodroffe - rosie.woodroffe@ioz.ac.uk
Imperial supervisor: Christl Donnelly - c.donnelly@imperial.ac.uk

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is a huge problem for Britain’s farmers, worsened by infection in wild badgers. New evidence suggests that transmission occurs without contact between badgers and cattle, presumably through their shared environment. This PhD will use modelling to explore the implications of environmental transmission for TB dynamics and control.

PhD Project Description - Tuberculosis in cattle and badgers... (344.6 KB)

Integrating human and wildlife health: the case of nonfatal rabies in Africa

ZSL supervisor: Rosie Woodroffe - rosie.woodroffe@ioz.ac.uk
Imperial supervisor: Christl Donnelly - c.donnelly@imperial.ac.uk

Rabies kills an estimated 60,000 people a year worldwide, and is also a major threat to the endangered African wild dog. But rabies is not invariably fatal, a point neglected by most rabies management plans. This PhD will combine fieldwork in Kenya with modelling, to explore the impact of nonfatal rabies on rabies dynamics and management in domestic dog and African wild dog populations. PhD Project Description - Integrating human and wildlife health... (131.03 KB)