OPPORTUNITIES
OPPORTUNITIES
Interested in gaining experience in sustainability, social sciences and policy making? The teal carbon group is looking for PhD candidates, interns and research assistants!
There is an untapped potential to develop low-cost strategies for managing farm dams to minimise their carbon footprint. In the future, governments could provide financial incentives (such as carbon credits) to encourage management actions that improve carbon drawdown and minimise greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Read more on the project website.
The successful candidate will join an ARC DECRA fellowship awarded to Dr Malerba to engage with farmers and run surveys and citizen-science projects to understand attitudes toward sustainable management of farm dams. The cosupervisory team includes Dr Lam, Prof Macreadie, A/Prof Vocino, and Dr Palacios.
Desired qualifications:
• Background in Psychology/Sociology/Anthropology/ Human Geography or cognate discipline
• Proficient in academic writing
• Experience in running surveys
• Experience in conducting in-depth interviews
• Knowledge of Qualitative data analysis
• First class Honours or Masters
• Based in Melbourne
• Able to work independent
Find more information here.
Contact:
Dr Martino E. Malerba (m.malerba@deakin.edu.au)
Dr Christie Lam (c.lam@deakin.edu.au)
We are looking for a Ph.D. candidate to join an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving water quality from farm dams.
Australian farm dams have some of the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per area among freshwater ecosystems. In Victoria alone, we estimated they release over 4,800 tonnes of CO2‐equivalent each day, which is 4.5% of all the State’s agricultural emissions. These recently discovered emissions are triggered by fertiliser and manure run-off increasing nutrients, reducing water quality, and creating the ideal conditions for producing methane (CH4) – a gas with 20-30 times greater warming potential than carbon dioxide (CO2).
There is an exciting opportunity to join the Blue Carbon Lab (Deakin University) in collaboration with Sustainable Farms (Australian National University) to investigate the effects of enhancing farm dam conditions on reducing methane emissions and improving water quality. Under the supervision of Dr Martino E. Malerba, the successful candidate will carry out field campaigns using tailor-made sensors to investigate the dynamics of farm dams.
This PhD project will aim to address the following aspects:
To learn more, visit https://www.bluecarbonlab.org/farm-dams.
The laboratory
Deakin University’s Blue Carbon Lab is a multi-disciplinary research group at the forefront of global efforts to improve lives and livelihoods sustainably. We led the first study reporting unusually high methane emissions from farm dams (Ollivier et al. 2018), we delivered a continental-scale map of farm dams in Australia (Malerba et al. 2021), and we developed management interventions to reduce methane emissions from farm dams (Malerba et al. 2022a, Malerba et al. 2022b). We developed unique tailor-made sensors to monitor water quality and greenhouse gas emissions continuously and automatically from farm dams. We have collaborative partnerships and projects across 30 countries and are recognised as world leaders in the science underpinning natural climate solutions.
Selection criteria
Applicants must meet Deakin’s PhD entry requirements, enrol full time and hold an Honours degree (First Class) or an equivalent standard Master’s degree with a substantial research component. Please refer to the entry pathways to higher degrees by research for further information.
Additionally, the successful candidate will have:
Instructions
PhD applicants should email the following documents to Dr Martino Malerba (m.malerba@deakin.edu.au):
Please note:
Call for PhD candidates to join our team and lead research on Coastal ‘Blue’ Carbon, Freshwater ‘Teal’ carbon, Ecosystem restoration, Ecosystem services, Farm Dams, and more. Please get in contact with p.macreadie@deakin.edu.au and attach your CV and a Cover letter outlining your research interests and experience.
The USA to Australia Graduate Education Scholarships will support full-time Graduate level study (Masters, Ph.D. or Postdoctoral Research) in the fields of STEM at an accredited educational institution in Australia. Open for applications in August each year.
These fellowships aim to recruit and support talented early career researchers whose areas of research interest directly align with research priorities at Deakin University. If you’d like to discuss available opportunities, please contact the research fellow that best aligns with your research interests.
Students are always welcome to join us in the laboratory and the field. Please fill out this form to let us know how you would like to get involved! Depending on your skills and interest, you might help processing soil samples in the lab, entering Blue Carbon data, joining one our coring campaigns, and more. It is a great opportunity to get upskilled and meet our scientists!