Study level
PhD
Master of Philosophy
Honours
Vacation research experience scheme
Faculty/School
Science and Engineering Faculty
Topic status
We're looking for students to study this topic.
Supervisors
- Position
- Associate Professor
- Division / Faculty
- Science and Engineering Faculty
External supervisors
- Dr Chris Clements, University of Bristol
Overview
Eradication is the process of driving a population down to zero - to extinction. We eradicate:
- invasive species from islands
- diseases from human populations
- cancer cells from patients.
Finding every last individual in a population is expensive and difficult. The rule of thumb is that you spend 95% of your resources removing the last 5% of the population. Many of the organisms we're trying to eradicate are also difficult to observe.
In this project, we'll use experimental microcosms (i.e., populations of unicellular animals in test tubes) to create and test mathematical tools for declaring whether eradications are successful.
The study will be in collaboration with Dr Chris Clements from the University of Bristol.
Research activities
You'll be involved in laboratory work, mathematics and writing a research paper around the project.
Outcomes
Our goal is to test the current rules for eradication and declaring successful eradication to determine if they're effective.
Skills and experience
Skills or experience in applied and computational mathematics, calculus and optimisation theory is desirable.
Scholarships
You may be able to apply for a research scholarship in our annual scholarship round.
Keywords
Contact
Contact the supervisor for more information.