Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine

PhD studentships

If you are interested in applying for any of these PhD positions we strongly encourage you to contact the identified project supervisor before or simultaneously with submitting a formal application, so that we can look out for, and if necessary help you with the submission of your application.


We expect to be offering a range of PhD projects funded by the UK Research Councils (BBSRC, MRC and NERC), the Wellcome Trust and other funding bodies, mostly for projects that will start in October 2013.

Details of these projects will be advertised on this page, on the College's Graduate School page and at the FindAPhd.com website.


PhD Position Available

How has gadoid biomass in the Clyde Sea been sustained

Institute of biodiversity, animal health and comparative medicine & School of mathematics and statistics

PhD Supervisors: Dr David Bailey

Application Deadline:  14th June 2013

Funding availability:  Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

Enquiry by email: david.bailey@glasgow.ac.uk

Description: What is sustaining gadoid biomass in the Clyde Sea?

Worldwide many fish stocks are below levels that are considered safe and this reduced abundance is often linked to a decline in the average size of individuals. Understanding how to return fish stocks and size compositions to healthy levels is of great scientific interest. Unfortunately simply removing the original fishing pressure does not always achieve this aim and the reasons for this failure are not clear. A key problem is that reducing fishing in one region may not reduce the overall mortality fish are exposed to because they can move over large distances during their life cycle and offspring from a carefully managed area might subsequently swim off into areas where they are caught.

This PhD will study demeral fish in the Firth of Clyde on the west coast of Scotland. This is a large but semi-enclosed sea area with a long and well-documented history of fishing. Following intense fishing pressure from the 1960s to 1980s, the species diversity and size composition of demersal fish in the Clyde changed substantially (Heath and Speirs 2011). In particular, stocks of the main commercial demersal species; cod, haddock and whiting collapsed. Fishing pressure was then severely reduced. Fish biomass is now greatly increased, but the majority of these are very young whiting (1 year or less), with few haddock or cod of any size and very few large fish. The Clyde’s ecosystem has fundamentally changed. It is vital to understand why this has happened so that appropriate management can be put in place.

We suspect that an important factor is the spawning and dispersal of the demersal fish and it is vital to know whether the lack of large fish in the Clyde is due to them leaving for other areas of the west coast or because they are being killed before reaching maturity.

The main approach to be used will be the analysis of gadoid otolith chemistry. Otoliths are calcareous structures in the ear of fish that accrete daily and annual increments. The chemistry of these increments reflects the chemistry of the surrounding water. Distinct differences in the otolith chemistry of young whiting (Tobin et al., 2010) and cod (Wright et al., 2006) have been found off the west coast of Scotland making it possible to trace the origin of these species in the Clyde and the contribution of this region to spawning further afield. Together with survey data this method will help build a full picture of the life history of commercial demersal fish populations in the Clyde and should provide an important demonstration of the way in which fish dispersal affects fisheries management.

The project will be jointly supervised between the University of Glasgow and Marine Scotland Science.

Apply on FindAPhD - http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=45052#_=_

Or via the MVLS Graduate School


PhD Position Available

Universal laws of mass migration: From cancer cells to wildebeest

Institute of biodiversity, animal health and comparative medicine & School of mathematics and statistics

PhD Supervisors: Prof Jason Matthiopoulos , Prof Dirk Husmeier, Prof Robert Insall, Dr Grant Hopcraft

Application Deadline: Applications accepted all year round

Funding availability: Fully funded, international students

Enquiry by email: jason.matthiopoulos@glasgow.ac.uk

Description: Why do things behave differently when they are in groups?  If we imagine that the suitability of an area degrades away from a specific point, then we should expect the movement of agents up and down this gradient to match the availability of the resource. For instance, more humans should migrate towards economic hubs, wildebeest should congregate in proportion to the available grazing, and the movement of cancer cells should be a function of the viscosity of the blood. However, this rarely occurs. In almost all circumstances, we observe more agents than we expect congregating in specific patches and these individual agents tend to move collectively. This aberrant behaviour of groups is consistently observed across all levels of organization from the movement of individual cancer cells in the human body to the mass migration of millions of animals. When individuals congregate and interact (via chemical, visual or aural communication), there is a fundamental switch away from our expectations which is suggestive of an underlying emergent property that has yet to be adequately quantified.
This project will synthesize our empirical observations of the movement of cancer cells and GPS collared wildebeest and compare them to models in which movement is directly proportional to the resource. Our objective is to account for the observed variation in movement patterns of groups and determine if there are commonalities that occur across these scales of organization that may account for this divergent behaviour.
The project would suit a numerate biologist or a physical/mathematical scientist with a keen interest in cellular or ecological problems.


Recent Projects - closing date now passed

Ph.D. Research Projects

BBSRC Scholarships -

  • You are what you eat: Investigating the Interlinked Cycle of Relationships between Host Gut Microbiome, Immune System and Systemic Infection
    Supervisors: Dr Annette MacLeod/Prof Paul Garside/Dr Gill Douce
  • Predicting the ecological determinants of the emergence of zoonotic malaria
    Supervisor: Dr Heather Ferguson/Prof Rowland Kao
  • Effect of early stress on patterns of ageing and senescence in vertebrates
    Supervisor: Prof Neil Metcalfe
  • Emerging Zoonotic Disease Risk in Informal Urban Settlements in Tanzania
    Supervisors: Prof Sarah Cleaveland/Prof Joanne Sharp
  • Development of a novel, non-invasive tool to assess welfare in birds
    Supervisors: Dr Ruedi Nager/Dr Dorothy McKeegan/Dominic Macaffert

Boyd Orr Centre for for Population and Ecosystem Health/The Donkey Sanctuary

  • Studentship in quantitative epidemiology - further information - Studentship - July 2012
    Closing date for applications was 31st July 2012

Wellcome Trust

A full list of PhD and MRes Scholarships is available through our MVLS Graduate School pages - http://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvls/graduateschool/researchopportunities/scholarshipopportunities/


Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Studentships

Deadline Now Passed
(1st December 2012)
Stipend: £13,590 per annum plus full fees


  • How the salamander got his spots: the genetics of colour, shape, and local adaptation in European salamanders
    Kathryn Elmer & Barbara Mable, Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow
    Kathryn.elmer@glasgow.ac.uk
    Project Details - How the salamander got his spots
  • Breeding in a contaminated world: do environmental pollutants promote mistiming of reproduction and limit the breeding success of farmland birds?
    Barbara Helm, Michelle Bellingham, Maureen Bain, Neil Evans & Jane Robinson (Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow)
    Barbara.helm@glasgow.ac.uk
    Project Details - Breeding in a contaminated world 
  • Why are Seal and Seabird Colonies where they are?
    Jason Matthiopoulos (Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow), with external collaborating inputs from Sarah Wanless and Francis Daunt (Centre for Ecology & Hydrology); Bernie McConnell and Debbie Russell, (University of St Andrews); and Keith Hamer (University of Leeds)
    Jason.matthiopoulos@glasgow.ac.uk
    Project Details - Why are Seal and Seabird Colonies where they are
  • Evolvability in the face of climate change: understanding developmental effects on bone and its ecological consequences
    Kevin Parsons, Neil Metcalfe, Pat Monaghan (Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow)
    kevin.parsons@glasgow.ac.uk
    Project Details - Evolvability in the face of climate change