PhD Scholarship in Deep-Sea Sediments and Paleoclimate

This scholarship aims to support a student undertaking a PhD in the EarthByte Group (https://www.earthbyte.org/phd-scholarship-in-deep-sea-sediments-and-paleoclimate/) in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. The project will focus on applying spatio-temporal data analysis for reconstructing the sedimentary evolution of the ocean basins. Deep-sea sediments record changes in climate, paleogeography, surface environments and biogeochemical cycles through geological time. In this project ocean drilling data will be used in combination with paleobathymetric maps, paleoclimate models and machine learning tools to reconstruct the accumulation rates of key components of deep-sea sediments, with a focus on deep-sea carbonates, organic carbon and the global carbon cycle.

The EarthByte Group is a leader in developing spatio-temporal data analysis tools. In this project a range of open-source tools including GPlates, pyGPlates, pyBacktrack, and machine learning tools will be applied to understand how major changes in ocean basin configurations and paleoclimate are reflected in the history of deep sea sedimentation and carbon storage. This project is part of an ARC Future Fellowship and will involve the Sydney Informatics Hub, offering broad expertise in data science, python scripting and workflow development. This project is perfectly suited to Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 times because it relies on an enormous wealth of existing analytical data and it uses data analysis methods that can easily be applied in other fields, leading to broad employment opportunities.

To be eligible you must be: a domestic or international student, currently enrolled or have an unconditional offer of admission to study a full-time PhD, willing to conduct research into deep-sea sedimentology and spatio-temporal data analysis, hold a master’s degree or an honours degree (first class or second class upper) in geosciences, or in a related field with a substantial research component.

The successful applicant will be awarded the Scholarship on the basis of: academic merit, area of study and research proposal, curriculum vitae, prior research outputs, a proven ability to work as part of a team a track record of completing tasks against deadlines, and a personal statement which demonstrates excellent communication skills.

Applications must be lodged via the online University of Sydney system via this link: https://www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships/d/postgraduate-research-scholarship-in-deep-sea-sediments-and-paleoclimate.html This page also includes a link to terms and conditions of this scholarship and other relevant links to pages with information about postgraduate studies for domestic and international students. Note that you need to apply for admission into the PhD program within the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney first. Contact Adriana Dutkiewicz (https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/about/our-people/academic-staff/adriana-dutkiewicz.html) for additional information about the project.