PhD opportunities
The Australian Rivers Institute (ARI) at Griffith University is one of the best places to study a PhD in aquatic toxicology. We have high quality faculty, are highly regarded internationally, and there is good peer support thanks to a strong PhD program involving numerous Australian and international students. See our website at https://www.griffith.edu.au/australian-rivers-institute. Brisbane and the Gold Coast are both fun, relatively safe cities to live in. Griffith University is ranked in the top 150 universities in the world in the field of ecology in the latest Shanghai Rankings, and in the top 2% of universities worldwide on most other ranking schemes. Our research in the field of Environmental Sciences has recently been assessed in the Australian government’s Excellence in Research for Australia as “well above world standard”, the highest ranking possible.
Admission to Griffith is managed by our Griffith Graduate Research School (GGRS) and requires very high academic standards. You can find a full guide on the application process at https://www.griffith.edu.au/research-study/apply. The starting point of any application is to get in touch with us – click on “Contact” in the menu above or email one of our researchers directly for further information.
Current opportunities
We always have opportunities and scholarships for PhD candidates, on a variety of topics including:
- Occurrence, toxicity and efficacy of (waste)water treatment to remove contaminants of emerging concern (pharmaceuticals, PFAS, microplastics, pesticides, disinfection by-products, environmental transformation products, etc)
- Development and application of in vitro alternatives and -omics techniques to environmental toxicology and monitoring
- Monitoring impacts of contaminants on marine megafauna, such as turtles, sharks, dugongs, dolphins, etc
- Elucidating the effects of contaminants on frog development and health
- And more …
Simply get in touch with any one of us and we can fine-tune a research project with you.
Honours and undegraduate student projects
Note: Most topics listed below are for Hons or MSc students. Some topics, however, can also be expanded to suit motivated PhD candidates – please contact the (co-)supervisors for further information! Hons students can also find more information at https://www.griffith.edu.au/griffith-sciences/school-environment-science/research/honours.
- Trophic transfer of microplastics in aquatic biota
- How do environmental pollutants upset fish behaviour
- Effects of antidepressants on circadian rhythms in fish
- Metabolomics and lipidomics: using advanced omics techniques to identify biomarkers of metal exposure in fish and larval frogs
- Unravelling the metabolome – Identifying unknown metabolites in model species
- Investigating the effects of chemical pollutants in marine megafauna using cell based assays (multiple projects)
- Effects of land use and extreme weather events on the diet of green sea turtles
- Does chlorinating water negatively affect the gut microbiome?
- Fate of microplastic contaminants during wastewater and sludge treatment
- Applying 21st century toxicity testing techniques to identify toxic chemicals
- Can in vitro test systems accurately predict toxicogenomic response in whole animals?
- How well do in vitro systems model whole animal metabolite responses?