Nigel Groome Studentship: Pushing The Limits of Museuomics: Investigating The Disappearance of Mazarine Blue Butterfly (Cyaniris Semiargus) and The Large Copper (Lycaena Dispar) in The British Isles

3 Year, full-time funded PhD Studentship

Eligibility: Home UK/EU and International applicants

Bursary p.a.: Bursary equivalent to UKRI national minimum stipend plus fees (current 2024/25 bursary rate is £19,237)

Fees and Bench fees: will be met by the University for the 3 years of the funded Studentship. Visa and associated costs are not funded. International applicants can visit https://www.brookes.ac.uk/students/isat/ for further information

Closing date: Friday 17th January 2025 – Midday

Start Date: September / October 2025

Project Title: Nigel Groome Studentship: Pushing the limits of museuomics: investigating the disappearance of Mazarine Blue butterfly (Cyaniris semiargus) and the Large Copper (Lycaena dispar) in the British Isles                  

Requirements:

Applicants should have a first or upper second-class honours degree from a Higher Education Institution in the UK or acceptable equivalent qualification. EU Applicants must have a valid IELTS Academic test certificate (or equivalent) with an overall minimum score of 6.5 to 7.0 and no score below 6.0 issued in the last 2 years by an approved test centre.

The studentship requires you to undertake the equivalent of up to 6 hrs teaching per week on average, during semester time, and to include preparation and marking (but no more than 20 hrs per week), and to participate in a teaching skills course without further remuneration.    

Project Description:

Climate change and habitat degradation are causing global biodiversity declines. Extinction risk is acute for invertebrates, which are difficult to monitor but are often of direct or indirect socioeconomic importance. Museum samples are a treasure trove for understanding extinction events but their use remains challenging and limited. Developing better tools to further unlock this treasure trove for using genomics to understand extinction events and applying this information more widely to monitor population health in existing species.

Building upon previous work in our group, this project aims to use museum samples of regionally extinct Mazarine blue and Large Copper butterflies to provide a genomic analysis of their extinction in the UK. Additionally, the project will involve optimizing whole genome sequencing protocols for working with older museum specimens and developing best practices for conducting metagenomics with museum insect specimens.

Essential Criteria

• Degree in relevant study area
• Interest and intermediate level background in conservation/population genetics and genomics
• Bioinformatics experience/aptitude
• Molecular Biology experience (PCR, DNA extraction, pipetting)

Desirable Criteria

• Prior experience preparing illumina sequencing libraries
• Prior experience working with museum specimens
• Some experience with R or Python programming 

Additional training will be provided as part of the programme of study and there will be networking/collaboration opportunities with other Lepidopterists across Europe. For more information about the project, interested candidates are encouraged to look at our webpage: saadarif.github.io

Application process: Please contact hls-applications@brookes.ac.uk for details of how to apply via the above ‘Apply’ button.

Application process: Please contact hls-applications@brookes.ac.uk for details of how to apply.

Director of Studies: Dr Saad Arif 

Supervisors: Dr Korneel Hens

Project Contact: Dr Saad Arif: sarif@brookes.ac.uk

Contact hls-applications@brookes.ac.uk with any queries.

This project is advertised on a competitive basis alongside other current Nigel Groome PhD  studentship advertisements for School of Biological and Medical Sciences projects. Part time MPhil/PhD study will be exceptionally considered.

Advert information