PhD projects available at the UK's National Centre for Statistical Ecology

We are looking to recruit well-qualified and innovative research
students, to start PhD study at any date between October 2010 and March
2012.  Funding is available for a limited number of students.  This
funding is open to international students.  Students from the European
Union will be fully funded, while funding for non-EU students will
include full stipend and partial fees.  The stipend will be paid for a
period of 3.5 years, and will be enhanced relative to the standard UK
research council stipend by UK£3000 per year.  Thus for 2010/11, the
enhanced annual stipend will be UK£16,590.

The National Centre for Statistical Ecology (NCSE,
http://www.ncse.org.uk/) is a multi-institution research centre,
established in 2005 as a joint venture, funded by EPSRC (a UK research
council), between the Universities of Kent, Cambridge and St Andrews.
Funding for a further five years has just been announced by EPSRC in
association with NERC, which allows us to expand the Centre to include
the Universities of Bath, Sheffield, Glasgow, Exeter and Bristol,
together with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.  (Following
departure of staff, Cambridge is no longer a member.)  There are
currently around 35 research students in NCSE.

Each available project falls within one or more of the following six
research themes:
1.  Biodiversity monitoring methodologies
2.  Spatial and spatio-temporal models for ecological communities
3.  Parameter redundancy, model diagnosis and model averaging in
ecological models
4.  New statistics methodology
5.  Stochastic models for population dynamics
6.  Movement models to exploit large tracking databases

Project titles and supervisors are listed below.  Please contact the
NCSE Director, Steve Buckland ([log in to unmask]) or Co-Director,
Byron Morgan ([log in to unmask]), if you would like further
details on these projects.  Applications should normally be made through
the institution of the first-listed supervisor for a given project, with
a copy of your cover letter and cv to be sent to the NCSE Director.

We also encourage students to approach us with their own suggestions for
projects.  If we believe that the proposed work fits well with the aims
of NCSE, and we can identify an NCSE supervisor with relevant expertise,
we will consider such applications along with applications for one of
the listed projects.  You may either contact your preferred supervisor
directly, or send your proposal to the NCSE Director.  Supervisor email
addresses can be found by clicking on 'People' at http://www.ncse.org.uk/.

List of projects:

Theme 1. Biodiversity monitoring methodologies

1.1. Improved measures of biodiversity
Supervisors:  Prof PG Blackwell, University of Sheffield;  Dr JB Illian,
University of St Andrews

1.2. Ecosystem services and resilience
Supervisors:  Prof EM Scott, University of Glasgow; Dr RI Smith and Dr
JMcP Dick, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology; Prof AE Magurran,
University of St Andrews

1.3. A spatial point process approach to vegetation mapping
Supervisors:  Dr RI Smith, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology; Dr JB
Illian, University of St Andrews

1.4. Novel techniques in the analysis of spatial and temporal changes in
butterfly abundance
Supervisors: Prof BJT Morgan, University of Kent;  Dr Stephen Freeman
and Dr David Roy, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

1.5. New analytical methods for estimating key ecological parameters
from camera trapping data
Supervisors: Prof BJT Morgan, University of Kent;  Dr M Rowcliffe,
Institute of Zoology;  Prof MS Ridout, University of Kent

Theme 2. Spatial and spatio-temporal models for ecological communities

2.1. Multi-species integrated population models
Supervisors:  Prof ST Buckland and Dr R King, University of St Andrews;
Dr S Newson, British Trust for Ornithology

2.2. Assessment of environmental impact on animal populations given
imperfect detectability
Supervisors:  Dr EA Rexstad, Prof ST Buckland and Dr ML Mackenzie,
University of St Andrews

2.3. Statistical issues in agent-based modelling
Supervisor: Prof PG Blackwell, University of Sheffield

2.4. Spatio-temporal modelling of forest eco-system monitoring data
Supervisor: Dr NH Augustin, University of Bath

2.5. Spatio-temporal ecological modelling over river systems
Supervisors: Prof AW Bowman, University of Glasgow; Dr M Brewer, BioSS

2.6. Uncertainty in coral reef modelling
Supervisor: Prof PG Blackwell, University of Sheffield

Theme 3. Parameter redundancy, model diagnosis and model averaging in
ecological models

3.1. Advanced MCMC methods for statistical ecology applications
Supervisors:  Prof WJ Browne, University of Bristol; Dr R King,
University of St Andrews

3.2. Model assessment for hidden process models
Supervisors: Dr DJ Cole and Prof BJT Morgan, University of Kent

3.3. Model evaluation for hidden process models
Supervisors: Dr RS McCrea and Prof BJT Morgan, University of Kent

Theme 4. New statistics methodology

4.1. Distributed systems and algorithms for Monte Carlo inference in
statistical ecology
Supervisors: Dr L Thomas, University of St Andrews;  Dr RB Gramacy,
University of Chicago

4.2. Sample size calculations and statistical ecology
Supervisors: Prof WJ Browne, University of Bristol; Dr L Thomas,
University of St Andrews

4.3. Prediction in the presence of temporal covariates
Supervisors: Dr R King, University of St Andrews; Dr I Eckley,
University of Lancaster

4.4. Application of mixture models in capture-recapture
Supervisors: Professors BJT Morgan and MS Ridout, University of Kent

4.5. Spatially explicit capture-recapture methods
Supervisor: Dr DL Borchers, University of St Andrews

Theme 5. Stochastic models for population dynamics

5.1. Spatio-temporal zooplankton modelling: a synthesis of mechanistic
and statistical modelling
Supervisor:  Dr SN Wood, University of Bath

5.2. Non-parametric modelling of temporal heterogeneity
Supervisors:  Dr ML Mackenzie and Dr R King, University of St Andrews

5.3. Efficient methods for fitting nonlinear non-Gaussian state-space
models of wildlife population dynamics
Supervisors: Dr L Thomas and Prof ST Buckland, University of St Andrews;
Dr PT Besbeas, University of Kent

5.4. Extensions of integrated population modelling
Supervisors: Dr PT Besbeas and Prof BJT Morgan, University of Kent

5.5. Stochastic population projection modelling
Supervisors: Prof S Townley and Dr DJ Hodgson, University of Exeter

5.6. Combined impacts of stochastic and transient dynamics in
demographic time series
Supervisors:  Prof S Townley and Dr DJ Hodgson, University of Exeter

5.7. Statistical development of multi-state stopover models
Supervisors:  Dr R King, University of St Andrews;  Dr RS McCrea,
University of Kent

Theme 6. Movement models to exploit large tracking databases

6.1. Differences and similarities in group positioning between wild and
domestic animals
Supervisors:  Dr S Rands and Prof WJ Browne, University of Bristol

6.2. Modelling movement in complex heterogeneous environments
Supervisors:  Prof PG Blackwell, University of Sheffield;  Dr J
Matthiopoulos, University of St Andrews

6.3. Non-standard spatial models in ecology
Supervisors:  Prof PG Blackwell, University of Sheffield; Prof AW
Bowman, University of Glasgow


-- 
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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