PhD Projects

Our PhD research includes a wide range of topics and methods spanning the fields of Genetics, Evolution and Environment. These project titles indicate some of the exciting research our students are doing. You can use these to help identify suitable supervisors for your own PhD project.

Class of 2020

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Class of 2019

Name	PhD topic	Funding	Supervisor
Gonzalo Albaladejo Robles	The influence of temperature on genomic and phenotypic variation of large DNA viruses	NERC DTP	Francois BALLOUX
Zikmund Bartonicek	The legacy of W.C. Osman Hill, a founding father of primatology: The historical, cultural, museological and biological significance of the Osman Hill primate collection	Royal College of Surgeons	Helen CHATTERJEE
Nancy Bird	Formation of ATP in prebiotic conditions	Origins of Life	Nick LANE
Gino Brignoli	The evolutionary and cellular origins of the Lophotrochozoan larva	Marie Curie	Max TELFORD
Hugh Carter	TBC	BBSRC DTP	Nazif ALIC
Owen Corbett	Investigating the human-gibbon interface in China, Vietnam And Myanmar: An interdisciplinary approach	Self Payer	Helen CHATTERJEE
Shaimaa Hassan	Investigating the interplay between microbial stress and host protein homeostasis	BBSRC DTP	John LABBADIA
Olivia Hillson	Global scenarios of terrestrial vertebrate diversity	European Union’s Horizon 2020 - inspire4nature	Tim NEWBOLD
Sara Javidnia	Environmental monitoring of medically and veterinary important freshwater snails and their schistosome parasites	NERC DTP	Bonnie Webster
Sean Jellesmark	How environmentally-induced adaptation and migration events have shaped the DNA of worldwide human populations	NERC DTP	Garrett HELLENTHAL
Ashleigh Marshall	Assessing how changes in avian trait diversity and composition alter ecosystem function in human- impacted Afromontane sky islands	NERC DTP	Julia DAY
Paschalis Natsidis	TBC	NERC DTP	Suzanne Williams
Bouwe Reijenga	Mechanisms and evolution of post-reproductive lifespan	NERC DTP	Seirian SUMNER
Lewis Revely	The evolutionary pathway and molecular mechanisms underpinning the evolution of social complexity in termites	NERC DTP	Paul EGGLETON
Bowen Xu	TBC	Self Payer	Linda PARTRIDGE

Class of 2018

Name	PhD topic	Funding	Supervisor
Mislav Acman	Classification and spread of environmental plasmids	BBSRC DTP	Francois BALLOUX
Robert Baines	Dictyostelium discoideum as a model for the evaluation of teratogenic compounds	BBSRC CASE	Christopher THOMPSON
Benjamin Burgess	Testing a mechanistic general model of global ecosystems: Improving prediction by increasing simplicity?	NERC CASE	David MURRELL
Marco Colnaghi	Quantitative modelling of major evolutionary transitions: The role of information and inheritance	UCL COMPLEX	Nick LANE
Lea Dambly	Modelling drivers of population change in bats	Centre For Ecology And Hydrology	Kate JONES
Shawn Dove	Advancing sampled approaches to established metrics for assessing trends in biodiversity	European Union’s Horizon 2020 - inspire4nature	Robin FREEMAN
Adrienne Etard	How do the ecological traits of vertebrates affect their responses to land-use and climate?	Royal Society studentship	Tim NEWBOLD
Stuart Harrison	Prebiotic nucleotide synthesis	bgc3	Nick LANE
Michael Jardine	The genetics and evolution of sexual antagonism	NERC DTP	Max REUTER
Joseph Millard	Assessing the global response of pollinators to environmental change: A computational approach to diversity, distribution, and value	NERC DTP	Tim NEWBOLD
Sam Morris	Harnessing ancient DNA information content to infer evolutionary histories	BBSRC DTP	Garrett HELLENTHAL
Christopher Owen	The influence of temperature on genomic and phenotypic variation of large DNA viruses	NERC DTP	Francois BALLOUX
Carina Phillips	The legacy of W.C. Osman Hill, a founding father of primatology: The historical, cultural, museological and biological significance of the Osman Hill primate collection	Royal College of Surgeons	Helen CHATTERJEE
Silvana Pinna	Formation of ATP in prebiotic conditions	Origins of Life	Nick LANE
Laura Piovani	The evolutionary and cellular origins of the Lophotrochozoan larva	Marie Curie	Max TELFORD
Abbie Rogan	TBC	BBSRC DTP	Nazif ALIC
Carolyn Thompson	Investigating the human-gibbon interface in China, Vietnam And Myanmar: An interdisciplinary approach	Self Payer	Helen CHATTERJEE
Rachel Wellman	Investigating the interplay between microbial stress and host protein homeostasis	BBSRC DTP	John LABBADIA

Class of 2017

Name	PhD topic	Funding	Supervisor
Ella Browning	Understanding the impact of environmental change on bat populations using acoustic monitoring methods	NERC DTP	Kate Jones
Ellen Coombs	How does climate affect cetacean diversity? Evidence from the past and present	NERC DTP	Anjali Goswami / Bridget Wade
Joao De Sousa Santos E Andrade Leite	Evolutionary biomechanics of the dinosaur hand	NERC DTP	Paul Barrett
Helen Fraser	Exploring genetics, transcriptomics and proteomics underlying age-related diseases and healthy lifespan in humans	MRC LBS DTP	Linda Partridge
Matias Fuentealba Valenzuela	Prediction of ageing-related drugs and comorbidities	CONICYT – (Chile)	Linda Partridge
Rory Gibb	Understanding and predicting the effects of land use change on zoonotic disease	UCL ORS/GRS/CSC Awards	Kate Jones
Seth Jarvis	Dissecting the role of RNA processing in the aetiology of ALS	Motor Neurone Disease Association	Vincent Plagnol
Helen Jury	Shifting Silence: Perceptions of the non-verbal and touch in Art Psychotherapy through objects and materials	Self funded	Helen Chatterjee
Thalassa McMurdo Hamilton	Quantifying utility of conservation interventions for threatened species recovery: The future of seabird management	NERC DTP	John Ewen
Benjamin Taylor	Evolution of caste and caste plasticity in eusocial wasps	NERC DTP	Seirian Sumner
Jessica Williams	How climate modifies the response of biodiversity to land use	Royal Society studentship	Tim Newbold

 

Class of 2016

Name	PhD topic	Funding	Supervisor
Judith Ament	Human-wildlife coexistence in the Anthropocene	NERC DTP	Christopher Carbone
Carla Bardua	Morphological evolution and modularity in early tetrapods and amphibians	European Research Commission	Anjali Goswami
Anob Chakrabati	Integrative genomic analyses of the roles of RNA binding proteins in the RNA regulatory landscape	Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD Programme	Nicholas Luscombe
Sergio Da Silva Henriques	Protecting the unknown: Streamlining the Sampled Red List Index approach to assess trends of extinction risk in megadiverse groups	NERC DTP	Robin Freeman
Lulia Darolti	Evolutionary history of recombination on newly evolved sex chromosomes	BBSRC DTP	Judith Mank
Chris Doble	The impact of anthropogenic disturbance on Lake Tanganyika’s Benthic communities	NERC DTP	Julia Day
Sam Finnegan	Sexual selection as a defence against meiotic drive	NERC DTP	Andrew Pomiankowski
Carina Kern	Reproductive death in ageing in the nematode C.elegans	Self Funded	David Gems
Catalina-Andreea Romila	Roles of non-coding RNAs for cellular lifespan in fission yeast	BBSRC DTP	Jurg Bahler
Filipa Sampaio	Diversity and diversification of uropeltoid snakes	NERC DTP	David Gower
Nonthiwat Taesuk	The impact of environmental changes on species distributions of large mammals in Thailand: Past, present and future	Royal Thai Embassy	Helen Chatterjee
Adrian Timpson	Human Evolution: Modelling cumulative culture and the emergence of modern behaviours.	UCL Study Assistance Scheme / Self Payer	Mark Thomas
Stjohn Townsend	Metabolic memories in yeast ageing: How do nutritional conditions and metabolic state during growth affect chronological lifespan of non-dividing cells	Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds	Jurg Bahler / Marcus Ralser
Pongsakorn Wangkumhang	Statistical methods to infer the ancestral history of populations using large-scale data	Royal Thai Embassy	Garrett Hellenthal
Alexander Warwick Vesztrocy	Computational functional annotation of crop genomes using hierarchical orthologous groups	BBSRC CASE / Bayer Cropscience	Chritophe Dessimoz
Natalie Wood	Neuropeptide function during embryonic development in S.purpuratus	BBSRC DTP	Paola Oliveri

 

Postgraduate Symposium

This is an annual event run by GEE that showcases the current research being undertaken by our post-graduate students. The symposium brings together a diverse range of research topics highlighting the enormous breadth and depth of science being carried out our department.  

 

2019 Poster and Talk Prizes

Final year talks
1st Iulia Darolti
2nd Carina Kern

Poster - joint winners
Ben Taylor
Mikael Meas

First year talks - joint winners
Shawn Dove
Mislav Acman

2018 Poster and Talk Prizes

Final Year Talk Prize
First Prize Filip Ruzicka
Runner-up Dan Bayley

Second Year Poster Prize - joint winners
Natalie Wood
Chris Doble

First year talk prize
First Prize StJohn Townsend
Runner-up Lea Dambly

Most interactive participant
Adrian Timpson

2018 Abstract Booklet

2017 Poster and Talk Prizes

Final Year Talk
First Prize Liam Shaw
Runner-up Javier Mendoza

Second Year Poster Prize - joint winners
Carla Bardua
Filip Ruzicka

First year talk prize - joint winners
Judith Ament
Natalie Wood

2017 Abstract Booklet

2016 Poster and Talk Prizes

Final Year Talk - joint winners
Elizabeth Gallagher
Anna Czarkwiani

Second Year Poster - joint winners
Adam Britton
Daniella Rabaiotti
Catherine Walker

First Year Talk - winner
Sam Finnigan

2015 Poster and Talk Prizes

Best Final year Talk - Winner
Fabian Zimmer

Best Final Year Talk - Runner-up
Gwen Maggs

Best Poster - Winner
Mark Hill

Best Poster - Runners-up
Ann Gilliat
Johannes Girstmair

Best First Year Talk - Winner
Charlotte Outhwaite

Best First Year Talk - Runner-up
Adam Britton

2014 Poster and Talk Prizes

Best final year talk - Winner:
Alison Cotton

Best final year talk - Runners-up:
Antonia Ford
Lucia Bettedi

Best Poster - Winner:
Fabian Zimmer

Best Poster - Runner-up:
Sayed Jaffar Abbas

Best First year talk - Joint Winners:
Katherine Walker
Leanne Grech

2013 Poster and Talk Prizes

Best final year talk - joint winners:
Jessica Bryant                 
Jorge Castillo-Quan

Best poster - joint winners:
Alison Jameson               
Alex Crampton-Platt     
Antonia Ford

Best first year talk Winner:
Fabian Zimmer

Best first year talk Runners-up:
Peter Rennert                  
Konstantinos Angelis

2012 Poster and Talk prizes

Poster prize 1:  Ben Garrod
Poster prize 2:  Sahar Emran
Poster prize 3:  Mirna Kovacevic

Talk prize 1:  Anton Flugge
Talk prize 2:  Avigdor Lerner
Talk prize 3:  Jack Hesketh

2011 Talk prizes

First prize:  Cassandra Coburn
Second prize shared by: Ripu Bains, Katherine Brown, Elisabeth Harley

Poster winners Verity Bennett, Anton Flügge, Avi Lerner

 

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