Opportunities

Postdoctoral fellowships

Fellowship openings depend on the ability of prospective candidates to attract funding. Talented individuals with an outstanding record of publishing high-impact journal articles and with potential funding should contact Prof. Connolly.

Potential PhD students

High-achieving graduates with outstanding Masters or Honours results and publications in top journals may be considered for PhD projects, dependent on being awarded a scholarship (see application information for Griffith University scholarships). Potential topics include:

1. Carbon in coastal wetlands
Students will work in one of the most topical areas in marine science. With the support of an experienced team they will use experiments to track carbon production, distribution and sequestration in Australia's coastal wetlands (e.g. saltmarsh, mangrove, seagrass). Skills will be developed in marine ecology and biogeochemistry; the project builds on outcomes from the CSIRO Carbon Cluster, and takes advantage of Griffith University’s advanced facility for stable isotope analysis.

2. Tracking fish movements among coastal habitats
Students will use novel methods for tracking fish movements, such as otolith microchemistry and acoustic tagging, among coral reef, mangrove and seagrass habitats. The work aims to improve identification of habitat hot spots, to increase sustainability of fisheries and enhance selection of marine reserves for improved biodiversity protection.

3. Resilience in coastal ecosystems
Students will pursue high-level theoretical analysis of the concept of resilience. Our recent development of new procedures for testing resilience will be applied to inshore marine environments such as reefs or bays. Skills will be developed in theoretical ecology and modeling.