Prof Iain Lake, Dr Craig Baker-Austin
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Scientific background
There is huge uncertainty in terms of how climate change may affect human of health (IPCC 2014), and this PhD provides an exciting opportunity to explore these research questions.
Vibrios are Gram negative bacteria that grow in marine and estuarine environments. They thrive in warm, low salinity waters. Current climate warming is believed to be behind the significant increase in vibrio infections, especially in Europe. As such, vibrios are considered the pathogen group in Europe of greatest concern because of climate change (Baker-Austin et al., 2012). Rising sea temperature and vibrios are identified as a future risk for UK populations (Lake, 2016). However, a fundamental unknown is how their abundance and the incidence of vibrio infections will change as a consequence of climate change.
Research methodology
This PhD project will gather relevant climatic, epidemiological and oceanographic data, to develop a clear understanding of the role of climate warming on the expansion of these pathogens.
1. You will gather health datasets gathered by European disease surveillance centres and combine these with relevant climate data such as sea surface temperature and salinity to develop an understanding of the influence of environmental factors upon human health (i.e. vibrio infections). These outputs will be used to inform our real-time risk assessments (https://e3geoportal.ecdc.europa.eu/SitePages/Vibrio%20Map%20Viewer.aspx).
2. You will apply the relationships uncovered in (1) to a number of regional climate models, for different levels of climate change, to generate future projections for vibrios and human illnesses in European waters.
3. Finally, you will model a number of future scenarios for vibrios taking into account likely population change, trends in the recreational use of coastal waters and possible intervention strategies to minimize the risk of infections.
Training
You will be based at UEA but undergo training at Cefas Weymouth in molecular microbiological techniques, and use their laboratories for microbial analyses.
Person specification
As a minimum you should have a good first degree (2:1 or higher) in science, geography or a related subject, but most of all have an interest how climate change may affect human health.
This project has been shortlisted for funding by the EnvEast NERC Doctoral Training Partnership, comprising the Universities of East Anglia, Essex and Kent, with over twenty other research partners. Undertaking a PhD with the EnvEast DTP will involve attendance at mandatory training events throughout the course of the PhD.
Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed on 12/13 February 2018.
For further information, please visit www.enveast.ac.uk/apply.
For more information on the supervisor for this project, please go here: https://www.uea.ac.uk/environmental-sciences/people/profile/i-lake
Type of programme: PhD
Start date of project: October 2018
Mode of study: Full time or part time
Length of studentship: 3.5 years
Acceptable first degree: Science, Geography, or other relevant subject.
EnvEast welcomes applicants from quantitative disciplines who may have limited background in environmental sciences. Excellent candidates will be considered for an award of an additional 3-month stipend to take appropriate advanced-level courses in the subject area.
Minimum entry requirement: 2:1 or equivalent.
Funding Notes
Successful candidates who meet RCUK’s eligibility criteria will be awarded a NERC studentship - in 2017/18, the stipend is £14,553. In most cases, UK and EU nationals who have been resident in the UK for 3 years are eligible for a stipend. For non-UK EU-resident applicants NERC funding can be used to cover fees, RTSG and training costs, but not any part of the stipend. Individual institutes may, however, elect to provide a stipend from their own resources.
References
(i) Baker-Austin, C. et al. (2012). Emerging Vibrio risk at high latitudes in response to ocean warming. Nat. Clim. Change 3(1), 73-77 (DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1628).
(ii) Lake, I.R. (2015). Food-borne disease and contamination. In S. Kovats (eds.) (2015) Health Climate Change Impacts Summary Report Cared, Living with Environmental Change.
(iii) Baker-Austin, C., J. A. Trinanes, S. Salmenlinna, M. Löfdahl, A. Siitonen and J. Martinez-Urtaza. (2016). Heatwave-associated vibriosis in Sweden and Finland, 2014. In press, Emerg. Infect. Dis.
(iv) Vezzulli, L., et al. (2016). Climate influence on Vibrio and associated human diseases during the past half-century in the coastal North Atlantic. PNAS, 1609157113v1-201609157.
(v) IPCC (2014). Human health: impacts, adaptation, and co-benefits. . In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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