Projects on offer for 2023-24
For information on how to apply for postgraduate study in the Department of Zoology for 2022-23, please view the Postgraduate Admissions Office webpages.
Course specific information is available here:
- MPhil in Biological Sciences (Zoology)
- MPhil in Biological Sciences (multiple pathways)
- PhD in Zoology
For further information about any of the projects listed below, please contact the supervisor directly. Applicants are welcome to approach supervisors with their own ideas - the list below is not exclusive, and does not include all supervisors. Please visit our Research Pages for more information.
NERC DTP
Many of our projects are also available as part of the NERC DTP - please make sure you quote the NERC project number in your application. For more information on the programme please refer to the NERC DTP website.
BBSRC DTP - Note the earlier 1st December application deadline
Many of our projects are also available as part of the BBSRC DTP, with between 25 - 30 fully funded studentships available. You can apply to this in parallel to a specific PhD project. For more information have a look at the BBSRC DTP website.
PhD projects available
Supervised by Prof David Aldridge - Aquatic Ecology
- NERC - BC431: *Priority CASE Project* The effect of droughts on the aquatic communities of Cambridgeshire's rivers and streams
- NERC - BC432: Tracking microplastic flows through freshwater ecosystems (Also available for a Whitten PhD Studentship)
- NERC - BC433: Native and invasive freshwater snails as model systems for host-parasite dynamics (Also available for a Whitten PhD Studentship)
Supervised by Dr Lynn Dicks - Agroecology group
- NERC - BC402: *Priority CASE Project* Saving the shrill carder bee: research to inform landscape-scale restoration efforts
- NERC BC426: Conserving the diversity of bees in farmland
- NERC- BC427: Understanding the impacts of insect decline on ecological function and human well-being
- How effective are current conservation policies at reversing insect decline?
- Scaling-up biodiversity reporting in food supply chains:developing a global farm-scale biodiversity metric for sustainable agriculture
Supervised by Prof Walter Federle - Insect Biomechanics Group
Supervised by Dr James Herbert-Read - Marine Behavioural Ecology Group
- NERC- BC415: Collective call synchronisation in cicada swarms
- NERC - BC416: Parental provisioning of mucus in a brood caring damselfish (Also available for a Whitten PhD Studentship)
Supervised by Prof Chris Jiggins - Insect Evolution and Genomics Group
- NERC - BC401: *Priority CASE Project* Genetic improvement of the Black Soldier Fly
- NERC - BC414: The ecological and genetic bases of chemical plasticity in butterflies
- NERC - BC436: Thermal adaptation in the wood tiger moth
Supervised by Prof Rebecca Kilner - Kilner Group
- NERC- BC412: Multi-level selection and the evolution of animal family life
- NERC- BC413: The evolutionary causes and consequences of task specialisation during biparental care
Supervised by Prof Matthias Landgraf - Neural Network Development Group
- Developmental robustness of neuronal networks
- Epigenetic mechanisms during critical periods of development
- Setting the setpoint
- Regulation of dendritic and synaptic plasticity by metabolic reactive oxygen species