Two PhD studentships are available with Prof Paul Blackwell, Department 
of Probability and Statistics, University of Sheffield. Both are fully 
funded for UK students only, including a full maintenance grant (£13,290 
per annum at the 2009/10 rate, increasing for later years). Fees-only 
studentships may be possible for EU applicants. See the NERC rules (at 
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/postgrad/eligibility.asp) for 
eligibility details. Applicants should have at least a 2.1 degree in 
mathematics/statistics.


Project 1: uncertainty in marine ecological modelling

This project will look at statistical aspects of the modelling of coral 
and related ecosystems, particularly the handling of uncertainty in 
modelling and data analysis. The application area presents interesting 
challenges, since the data available range from high-resolution field 
data to very large satellite images, and useful models range from the 
purely statistical to the highly mechanistic. The project will involve 
collaboration with Professor Peter Mumby, who is currently at Exeter 
(see http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/msel/) but will be moving shortly to 
the University of Queensland. For further details, please email me at 
[log in to unmask]


Project 2: statistical methods for counting annual layers in ice cores

This is a joint project with the British Antarctic Survey, developing 
new statistical methods to improve the dating of ice cores, which is 
crucial to our understanding of past climate. It will involve developing 
improved methods to extract annual cycles from chemical signals in the 
ice, which may be noisy or incomplete. The project will be jointly 
supervised with Dr Nerilie Abram at the BAS in Cambridge. For further 
details, please see the advert on the BAS site 
(http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/employment/vacancies/job.php?JobID=527)


Applications should be made by 12th March. Please apply online to the 
University of Sheffield (http://www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/online.html) 
specifying a PhD in Probability and Statistics as the qualification, and 
Prof. Blackwell as Sheffield supervisor; you do not need to give a 
detailed project proposal, but should make it clear which project(s) you 
are interested in.

-- 
Professor P. G. Blackwell
Dept. of Probability & Statistics, University of Sheffield
Tel. +44 114 2223719; http://paul-blackwell.staff.shef.ac.uk/

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