Insect Molecular Evolution

Study the link between diversification and molecular evolution rate in wasps, bees and ants (Hymenoptera) with the use of newly generated and existing Ultra Conserved Element (UCE) and transcriptome datasets.   

Supervisors:

• Juanita Rodriguez Arrieta, Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO (Juanita.Rodriguez@csiro.au)
• Dave Rowell, Research School of Biology, ANU (David.Rowell@anu.edu.au)

About the CSIRO Postgraduate Scholarship Program

• 2018 start

• $7,000pa top-up stipend and $10,000pa operating

The CSIRO Postgraduate Scholarship Program provides opportunities in science and engineering for outstanding graduates at Australian tertiary institutions.

Each year, the Program supports postgraduate scholarships for students to work on a project relevant to one of several priority research areas. Students are co-supervised by researchers in an Australian university and CSIRO.

Top-up PhD Scholarships are available to PhD students who have gained (or expect to gain), first class honours or equivalent in relevant research areas. Students must currently be, or be able to be, enrolled in a PhD program at ANU and will need to be awarded a main source of funding (a full scholarship), ie. in addition to applying for the CSIRO scholarship (via CSIRO’s careers portal), at the same time (or before) they will also need to apply via the ANU online system and be successful in receiving either an:

• Australian Government Research Training Program International Fee Offset Scholarship - Full tuition fees for 3 years (applications close 31 Aug);
• Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend Scholarship - Full stipend (living allowance) for 3 years (applications close 31 Aug for international and 31 Oct for domestic); or
• ANU PhD scholarship - Full stipend (living allowance) for 3 years (applications close 31 Aug for international and 31 Oct for domestic).

Projects will be advertised via CSIRO’s careers portal from mid September 2017. Applications close 31 October 2017.

Before applying, prospective students should get in touch with both the CSIRO and ANU supervisors to discuss the project.