Current opportunities
Please note: These scholarships are subject to funding availability and are reviewed each year. The UC Scholarships Office administers most of these scholarships. Please search our scholarships database for all scholarships currently available.
PhD Studentship in Stellar and Planetary Astrophysics
Assoc. Prof. Karen Pollard (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) has an opening for a 3-year Marsden-Funded PhD studentship on “Exploring strange new worlds: comets and planetary systems around young nearby stars". Young stars hosting protoplanetary discs are ideal astrophysical laboratories for studying the processes and mechanisms of planetary system formation. Combining high-quality spectra from a worldwide network of telescopes with complementary high-precision TESS photometry, this project aims to characterise the host stars in young stellar systems and reveal details of the properties and orbital dynamics of their exocomets and planets.
For more details: http://www2.phys.canterbury.ac.nz/~krp24/
The ideal candidate would have a strong background in stellar or planetary astrophysics with an interest in high-resolution spectroscopy, asteroseismology, stellar evolution, exo-planet and exocomet studies and/or protoplanetary disk formation and evolution.
A stipend of NZ$35,000 p.a. plus fees for 3 years is available, as well as funding for participation in international conferences.
We will start considering applications from 31 May 2024 and the position will remain open until filled. Start date is flexible, between 1 July 2024 and 1 March 2025. The ideal student will have an excellent MSc degree, first class honours (or a good second class division II) degree or equivalent in Astronomy, Physics or related subject.
Interested candidates should apply to karen.pollard@canterbury.ac.nz, including a curriculum vitae, an academic transcript and names and contact details of two academic referees. Informal enquiries are welcome.
Contacts:
Web: http://www2.phys.canterbury.ac.nz/~krp24/
Email: karen.pollard@canterbury.ac.nz
Food Transitions 2050
PhD scholarships to research a sustainable food future, within the Food Transitions 2050 Joint Postgraduate School, New Zealand. For more info and to apply - click here
You could be doing research to support the transition of our regional, national and international food systems to a future, more sustainable, state.
Food Transitions 2050 is a strategic partnership initiative between five research organisations located in the Canterbury region of New Zealand: AgResearch, Lincoln University, Manaaki Whenua, Plant & Food Research and the University of Canterbury.
We are offering 10 scholarships across a range of disciplines (social sciences, biophysical sciences and engineering). All students undertake a 3-year PhD thesis, and the scholarship pays study fees and a $30,000 NZD p.a. stipend (increased to $32,000 from 2025) for this period.
Each of our students will be based at either University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha or Lincoln University | Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki, and will have a supervisory team containing researchers from at least one university and at least one Crown Research Institute, to provide exposure to university and non-university research environments.
We’ve deliberately taken an inter- and trans- disciplinary, multi-scale approach, both because the problem of sustainable food necessitates it, and because we want to build capacity of researchers who have a broader view of the issues and who can communicate across disciplines. A pathway to achieving this broader perspective is by having students from different disciplines interacting regularly as a cohort.
To ensure that our graduates are ready for work in academia, research, industry or public service, we provide regular training in transferable skills, and offer our students an opportunity for work-integrated learning (i.e. an external collaboration or internship) in a relevant area alongside their study.
Contact Food Transitions 2050 for more details.
