Funded PhD Studentship: DTC BIO 4 - Multi-‘omic modelling of microbial community interaction

Swansea University is a UK top 30 institution for research excellence (Research Excellence Framework 2014), and has been named Welsh University of the Year 2017 by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.

Swansea Science DTC is a community committed to undertaking world-class research that has a positive impact globally and we have a fully-funded PhD scholarship for 2017/2018 entry.

The diverse aquatic and terrestrial habitats on the nearby Gower Peninsula and Brecon Beacons make Swansea an excellent place to study Biosciences. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014, 94% of the Department of Biosciences’ research was judged to be world leading or internationally excellent.

The Department of Biosciences provides state-of-the-art facilities including: our coastal research vessel the RV Noctiluca, a new £4.2 million suite of laboratories, the Zoology Museum, greenhouses, growth rooms, aquaria and £2 million Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research (CSAR) as well as our unique £1.35 million Swansea Lab for Animal Movement (SLAM) visualisation and tag construction facilities.

Description of Project:

Release of CO2 through fungal decomposition of woody biomass is equivalent to human-derived emissions, and a major contributor to climate change. This curiosity-driven project will develop novel biostatistical modelling and bioinformatics approaches to understand mechanisms and processes key to fungal decomposition. Training will be given for relevant approaches in community dynamics, spatial ecology, and analysis of high throughput molecular data as part of this Systems Biology project.