UK : PhD Studentships Global Environmental Change and Earth Observation

University of Southampton - School of Geography

Title: Mapping environmental variables and disease (fully funded)

Supervisor: Professor Pete Atkinson & Prof. Sue Welburn (University of Edinburgh)

Funding Source: Fully funded by the University of Edinburgh and School of Geography, University of Southampton

Closing date: 30 June 2010

Eligibility: All are eligible but International students would need to find the difference between home and overseas fees for the full three years.

The University of Edinburgh and the University of Southampton have funding to support 'Community based interventions against Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria'.

The project offers a unique opportunity to link disease establishment and the ecology of species invasion, providing a framework that may be applied to the study of other vector-borne diseases as regards our understanding of disease establishment and the spatial dynamics of animal and human trypanosomiasis. Environmental conditions in the study sites will be characterised with particular reference to disease challenge.

The student will investigate the environmental gradient from the surrounding lowlands up onto the plateau and provide an objective basis for extrapolating to other regions with similar environmental characteristics, where similar epidemiological conditions are likely to prevail. The student will compile the most detailed and recent information available relating to the distribution of human, livestock and wildlife populations, vegetation patterns, intensity of land use, climatic conditions and location of protected areas. The predictive disease risk mapping capability this will provide will facilitate the assessment and recommendation of appropriate disease control measures at later stages of the project.

High resolution remotely sensed data will be used to map seasonal land-use and land-cover patterns, and vegetation indices such as the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI, an index of vegetation health and abundance will be used to classify areas for tsetse habitat suitability, linking with the tsetse surveys, above). By quantifying the spatial and temporal effects of these ecological drivers, more effective evidence-based control approaches may be identified, leading to targeted approaches to disease control in the resource poor settings in which the disease exists. The interplay between the parasite population and the natural environment described and quantified here may form a basis for better control of other vector-borne infections.

Candidates must have or expect to gain a first or strong upper second class degree, in Geography, or an appropriate related subject. A recognised MSc would be an advantage but is not essential.

Details on how to apply are available from the Graduate School Administrator, School of Geography University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, Telephone 023 8059 2216, fax 023 8059 3295, email J.A.Drewitt@soton.ac.uk. Informal enquiries may be made to Professor Pete Atkinson (email P.M.Atkinson@soton.ac.uk).

For the latest information on funding opportunities, please visit the Geography website at http://www.geog.soton.ac.uk/.