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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
PhD Project Template
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Use one form per project
Please complete & submit to international@nuigalway.ie as soon as possible, and by 27/11/2012
In your email, begin the subject line with [SWB] (be sure to use square brackets) to ensure that
your email is filed correctly. Emails will be automatically filed
PI name & contact details:
School:
Louise Allcock
louise.allcock@nuigalway.ie
School of Natural Sciences
Has project been agreed with head (or
nominee) of proposed registration school?
Research Centre / group affiliation:
Ryan Institute
Research group / centre website:
http://www.ryaninstitute.ie/
PI website / link to CV:
http://www.nuigalway.ie/our-research/people/naturalsciences/louiseallcock/
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
If you are already involved in relevant scholarly activities relating to Brazil, please mention them here.
I study the evolution and ecology of cephalopods and other molluscs, particularly groups that have
radiated in the Southern Ocean and the deep sea. I am also interested in poorly known taxa such as
sponges, cnidarians and ascidians occuring in the submarine canyon systems on the Irish continental
margin.
Title & brief description of PhD project (suitable for publication on web):
Cephalopod evolution: can we get tree stability amongst higher taxa?
Molecular evolution has transformed our knowledge of cephalopod evolution, however there is still
relatively little stability in tree topology among higher taxa. This small but important and diverse
group has divergent lineages whose relationships cannot be determined by morphological
characters and which suffer from long branch attraction. Finding a robust topology will help our
understanding of many key evolutionary events, for example, structural changes in the cephalopod
eye. Total evidence approaches have not yielded stable phylogenies however targetted sequencing
of nuclear genes and whole mitochondrial genomes of certain taxa could substantially improve the
dataset available for all approaches. Hence this project will obtain sequence data from key taxa and
apply a variety of tree-building approaches in an attempt to provide the first stable cephalopod
phylogeny.
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
Unique selling points of PhD project in NUI Galway:
NUI Galway projects should emphasise features that are not typically available in Brazil – specific equipment,
multi-disciplinarity, aspects of structured programme, links with industry, placements, links with other research
groups etc.
Research will be based in the multi-disciplinary Ryan Institute and will involve registration in a structured PhD
programme.
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
Zoology, Marine Science, Biological or Environmental sciences
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fits- choose only
one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)/Physical Sciences (Mathematics,
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geosciences)
Health and Biomedical Sciences / Clinical, Pré-clinical and Health Sciences
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Computing
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Sustainable Agricultural Production
Oil, Gas and Coal
Renewable Energy
Minerals, Minerals Technology
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technologies for Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters
Bioprospecting and Biodiversity
Marine Sciences
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Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering
Please indicate which of the following applies to this project (referring to Science Without Borders
arrangements):
Suitable only as a Full PhD (Y/N): _ ____
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
Available to candidates seeking a Sandwich PhD arrangement (Y/N): _____
Suitable for either/Don’t know: Y