Student topics

In the case of cellular life - bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes - determining the 'tree of life' is a comparatively well-studied problem.This vertical evolutionary history can be estimated using concatenated gene phylogenies, where single copy marker genes are concatenated into a single multiple sequence alignment which is then used in a phylogenetic tree reconstruction algorithm.Viral genomes and plasmid sequences, meanwhile, are more challenging to fit into a phylogenetic framework.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Microbiome Research

Soil systems are fundamentally important to the health of our planet, but the complexity of soil microbial communities makes them particularly challenging to study. Soil systems are amongst the most diverse microbial ecosystems on Earth in terms of the number of microbial species (and strains) present within individual samples, and in the breadth of functions encoded. Beyond complexity measured by counting distinct community members, interactions between microbial species including symbiosis, parasitism or commensalism are widespread and yet barely studied.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Microbiome Research

Organised sport is primarily community based in Australia; and the benefits of sport participation to individuals and communities are well documented. However, there is also evidence that participating in organised high-performance sporting programs is associated with psychological distress, elevated relative to community norms, which would usually warrant a need for care by a health professional. As such a case for improvement in mental health education and practice in sporting communities exists.Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a standardised, psychoeducational programme …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences

Antarctic and sub-Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems are dominated by mosses, lichens, invertebrates and some vascular plants. Marine vertebrates (penguins, seals, seabirds) also play an important role in driving terrestrial processes. All these species are influenced by many environmental and biotic factors, including interactions between species. Determining the impacts of climatic and environmental change on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic biodiversity requires greater understanding of these interactions.Ecological data on species interactions and the drivers of these interactions are an essential part of Antarctic and …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Biology and Environmental Science

Research centre(s)

Centre for Data Science
Centre for the Environment

Board interlocks research is one of the most vibrant areas in corporate governance research. A board interlock is a tie created by two firms sharing a common director. In other words, a director can hold multiple directorships in more than one firm. Board interlocks reflect complex inter-organisational relationships which play an important role in determining a firm’s strategies and structures.Prior research finds that board interlocks have an impact on reducing environmental uncertainty, gaining access to diverse and unique information, diffusing …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Accountancy

Corporate remuneration schemes can attract, retain, and motivate executives to exert effort and align their interests with shareholders’ interests. Prior studies find that executives are likely to resign when they are paid less than their peers, leading to a high rate of managerial turnover. However, paying excess compensation reduces firm value and it’s commonly related to firm underperformance. On the other hand, replacing top executives can be extremely costly for firms. Therefore, it’s very important to understand the reasons behind …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Accountancy

Driving growth and employment in the rapidly evolving Indigenous business sector is a key priority of Australia’s national and state governments. An important growth strategy for firms is internationalisation through, for example, exporting, international strategic alliances or even foreign direct investment. Yet we know relatively little about the growth of Indigenous businesses through international business.This project will answer questions including:How do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses internationalise?Is their approach to international growth like that of other small and medium …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Research centre(s)

Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research

Satellite images are a frequent and free source of global data which can be used to effectively monitor the environment. We can see how the land is being used, how it’s being changed, what’s there – even where animals are in the landscape. Using these images is essential, particularly for regions where data is expensive to collect or difficult to physically access, like Antarctica. In Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands, satellite images can be an easy and quick way to …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Mathematical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Data Science
Centre for the Environment

Cities are changing across the globe. Climate change, rapid urbanisation, pandemics, as well as innovations in technologies such as blockchain, AI and IoT are all impacting urban space. One response to such changes has been to make cities ecologically sustainable and 'smart'. The 'eco smart city', for instance, uses networked sensing, cloud and mobile computing to optimise, control, and regulate urban processes and resources. From real-time bus information, autonomous electric vehicles, smart parking, and smart street lighting, such initiatives are …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice

School

School of Design

Research centre(s)

Design Lab

Low-dimensional and atomically-thin magnets host a myriad of exotic magnetic states. As such, they are excellent candidates for memory and logic devices in future technologies.However, the atomic structures needed to realise these states are still not well understood.For this reason, theoretical investigations of the electronic and magnetic properties of these materials are crucial to engineer functional magnetic materials in the future.

Study level

Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering

The machine learning based computer modelling and simulation for engineering and science is a new era. The optimisation analysis is widely used in the design of structures.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering

Research centre(s)

Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Centre for Biomedical Technologies

In today's highly dynamic, opportunity-rich markets, the rapid manifestation of trust has become a major challenge for both established and new organisations that attempt to introduce new products and services. Previous research focused mainly on the long-term development of trust (e.g., concerning brand reputation), and the nature (and factors) of immediate trust decisions remain under-researched.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Accountancy

Research centre(s)

Centre for Future Enterprise