ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies - opportunities


Up to 8 new postdoctoral positions will be available at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral
Reef Studies, a multi-institutional centre that will formally begin operations by the end of 2005.
The positions are available at James Cook University (Townsville), the University of Queensland
(Brisbane) and the Australian National University (Canberra). The Centre has secured so far
approximately $40 million in funding for 2006-2010. The Centre of Excellence will take a leading
role in multi-national research programs, and at the outset has ongoing collaborative links to 28
institutions in nine countries.


A list of recent publications by the Centre Chief Investigators is attached. Requests for pdfs may
be sent to jonita.kerr@jcu.edu.au.


Positions are for 1-3 years (preferably 3-year), with a salary of approximately A$55-70K plus
benefits, depending on experience. Funding is available for moving costs from overseas. To be
competitive, younger applicants will need to have already published most of their PhD results in
better journals.


The successful applicants will join Centre staff engaged in the study of coral reefs at a global
scale. There is considerable scope for the successful candidates to shape a role that suits their
particular strengths and interests. The successful appointees will be expected to publish his or
her work in high-quality journals, and to collaborate with Centre staff to apply their skills to
research problems in coral reef management and conservation. We are particularly interested in
people with advanced training in environmental and socio-economic history, social sciences,
natural resource economics, macroecology, epidemiology, stress physiology (particularly climate
change), evolutionary biology, phylogenetics, bioinformatics, paleobiology and biogeography. A
high level of numerical/statistical skills is essential, while previous experience with coral reefs is
desirable.


The Centre's activities will focus around five programs (see below) that transcend the three major
Australian nodes of the Centre. Potential candidates should begin a dialogue with the
appropriate Program Leader to help guide a formal application and to find out more about their
potential role in one or more programs. We will shortly advertise these positions in
Science/Nature.


Program 1: Evolutionary and environmental change
(Malcolm.McCulloch@anu.edu.au)
Program 2: Understanding and managing coral reef biodiversity
(david.bellwood@jcu.edu.au)
Program 3: Marine reserves and reef connectivity (garry.russ@jcu.edu.au)
Program 4: Genetic, molecular and physiological processes ("Ove
Hoegh-Guldberg" <oveh@uq.edu.au>)
Program 5: Resilience of linked social-ecological systems
(terry.hughes@jcu.edu.au)


Prof. Terry Hughes
Centre for Coral Reef Biodiversity
Department of Marine Biology
James Cook University
Townsville, Australia
ph +61 7 4781 4823
fax +61 7 4725 1570