Opportunities

 

Postdoctoral opportunities

I welcome enquiries from post-doctoral fellows interested in research projects linked to my areas of research*. If you have a project in mind, drop me an email.

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Postgraduate opportunities

PhD Project: Antarctic Eocene sea-floor ecosystem structure in response to environmental change

Lead Institution: British Antarctic Survey (BAS)

Lead Supervisor: Dr Rowan Whittle, BAS, Palaeoenvironments, Ice and Climate Change

Co-Supervisor: Daniela Schmidt, University of Bristol, School of Earth Sciences

Co Supervisor: Saurav Dutta, BAS

Co-Supervisor: Alex Dunhill, University of Leeds

Co-Supervisor: James Witts, Natural History Museum

Co-supervisor: Teal Riley, BAS, Palaeoenvironments, Ice and Climate Change

Project Enquiries: roit@bas.ac.uk

Webpage: https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/the-evolution-and-ecology-of-antarctic-sea-floor-communities/#about 

 

A close up of an animal.
Clues to the past: fossils of marine molluscs from Antarctica.

Project aims and methods:

The Eocene (56-34 mya) was a time of immense global climate change. This project will determine the
effects of this change on Antarctic seafloor evolution, answering questions such as ‘how did climate change affect community ecology?’ and ‘did organisms react to changing temperatures?’.


Mid-late Eocene fossils from Seymour Island provide the dataset, deposited over 12 million years. The
student will develop research areas potentially including, but not limited to: size analysis, seasonality,
growth, functional analysis, and foodweb evolution, providing the most detailed assessment of the effects of cooling on Antarctic seafloor ecosystems so far.

Training opportunities at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) (where the student will be based), with lead
supervisor Dr Whittle, include invertebrate taxonomy and Southern Hemisphere evolutionary history. They will carry out outreach activities and join the BAS student community. Professor Schmidt (Earth Sciences, University of Bristol) will offer training areas such as: bivalve growth, seasonality, mineralogical changes, trace element mapping, and/or working with climate modellers. The student can be a Bristol palaeobiology group member and may choose to supervise a master’s student.


Other project supervisors (Drs Dunhill, Witts and Dutta) bring expertise on ecological modelling, community ecology and isotopic analysis for determining palaeoclimate.

Useful recruitment links:
For information relating to the research project please contact the lead Supervisor via: roit@bas.ac.uk

This Project will be hosted by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) but you will need to apply to the University of Bristol as the registered University who will be awarding the PhD.


Bristol NERC GW4+ DTP Prospectus: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research/great-western-four-doctoral-training-partnershipnerc/

How to apply to the University of Bristol: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/

The application deadline is Thursday 8 January 2026 at 2359 GMT

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General…

I am always on the look-out for good students interested in research projects linked to my areas of research*. If you have a project in mind, drop me an email.

*area of research include

  • Macroecology of mass extinction events
  • Macroevolutionary patterns in Mesozoic oceans
  • Community ecology in the fossil record
  • Temporal and spatial Phanerozoic biodiversity patterns
  • Quantifying and modelling sampling biases in the fossil record