LE SOUËF MEMORIAL AWARD

Further information, including how to make a nomination, can be obtained by writing to Steve Curle, 5 York Street, Glen Waverley, Victoria, 3150 (email: steve@scurle.com)

Nominations for this year need to be received by 30 September. Nominations received after that date will be deferred until the following year.

$26,000 pa plus generous operating.

Based in Orange and with field sites in NSW forests, this PhD position offers stimulating training in biological pest management.

The ideal candidate will have a strong academic background in entomology, ecology or forestry science with some experience of pest management research.  This scholarship is open to international students (with excellent English language ability) as well as Australian citizens/permanent residents.

The project is funded by the National Sirex Coordination Committee.  It will involve working closely with industry members on one of Australia’s most serious forestry pests, sirex wood wasp.  Biological control of this pest is currently being threatened by exotic Ips bark beetles. www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/news/bush-telegraph-magazine/autumn-2008/exotic-bark-beetle-turns-nasty-in-pine-plantations

For more information please contact: Professor Geoff Gurr, (02) 6365 7551

Bennelongia Environmental Consultants (www.bennelongia.com.au) are seeking to employ a biology honours or higher degree graduate with excellent writing skills and a knowledge of invertebrates. The company is based in Perth and works throughout WA. Surveying troglofauna and assessing possible impacts of development on troglofauna is a large component of Bennelongia’s business. Stygofauna is another component. The position would entail fieldwork, laboratory sorting and identification, analysis, literature review and report writing.

The position would be suited to someone with entomological or arachnid experience.

Bennelongia runs its own laboratory with dissecting and compound microscopes, photographic equipment, voucher collections and an extensive library.

PhD Opportunity
University of Queensland and CSIRO Entomology

Are you interested in spatial modelling and biological systems? Here is an opportunity for a PhD scholarship at the School of Integrative Biology at The University of Queensland and CSIRO Entomology, to study ecosystem services and sink-source dynamics, using insects in a cropping landscape as a model system. You will work on a project that focuses on how landscape features such as crop and native vegetation arrangements influence colonization of crops by the natural enemies of agricultural pests. This research will identify landscape management practices that can enhance the ecosystem service of pest control and contribute to sustainable agriculture. The project includes: 1) development and analysis of models for the spatio-temporal dynamics of natural enemies and pests at the landscape scale, 2) conducting field experiments within an experienced team to fill in knowledge gaps and test hypotheses and 3) evaluating the consequences of different landscape configurations for the ecosystem service of pest control. The successful applicant should have an Honours or MSc in Biological Sciences and have affinity with quantitative ecology and (spatial) modelling. The position is a 3-year full time position, starting in March 2008 (with some flexibility). Scholarship salary will be $Au26,000/year. This project is funded by the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC and Grains Research & Development Corporation.

For further information please contact Dr Felix Bianchi (07 3214 2854).