Supervisors: Professor Majid Ezzati (Imperial College London; www.globalenvhealth.org) and Professor Sandy Harrison (University of Reading)
We welcome applications for funded 4-year PhD studentships to start in Spring-Autumn 2021. This is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious researcher to conduct interdisciplinary research on vulnerability to, and inequalities in, the health risks and impacts of wildfires.
Wildfires can affect human health through a number of routes. Some of these, such as acute injury and air pollution, are well-known. Other routes can include loss of income and livelihood, disruption of support networks and healthcare, psychosocial impacts, changes in nutrition, etc. For some of these routes, the risk may also depend on individual and community socioeconomic status, quality of housing and local infrastructure.
The research will use multiple traditional – for example censuses – and emerging data – for example remote sensing and street level imagery – to map the spatial patterns, and inequalities, in the various routes through which wildfires may impact human health and characterise vulnerabilities to these impacts.
The studentships will be based in the Environment and Global Health Research Group (www.globalenvhealth.org). The group is internationally renowned for its work on spatiotemporal analysis of multi-dimensional health and environmental data. The group is highly interdisciplinary and the students will interact regularly with peers that have diverse backgrounds and specialisations There are also regular interactions with other parts of Imperial (e.g., Data Science Institute, Department of Mathematics and Faculty of Engineering) and at other leading global universities.
The student will also join a vibrant interdisciplinary research community in the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, which includes staff and PhD students and staff from Imperial College London, King’s College London, the University of Reading and Royal Holloway, University of London, with a common vision of producing evidence-based understanding of the human-fire nexus that can help inform policy and practice.
Applicants should have, or expect to receive, a first or upper second class degree or equivalent in physics, mathematical ecology, engineering, population studies, mathematics or related discipline, and have exceptional quantitative preparation.
The studentship is funded by the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society. The student will be funded at the UKRI London rate, £17,285 stipend per annum (including London allowance) paid for four years. The studentship will start in Spring-Autumn 2021. It will cover EU fees (for start dates up to 31st July 2021) or UK fees for three years, and writing-up fees for the final year. There will be support funding for fieldwork and conference attendance.
The closing date for application is 29th January 2021 (23:59 GMT). Please download the application form and send it to global.env.health@imperial.ac.uk. Interviews for shortlisted candidates will take place in February 2021.
(See advert also on Findaphd.com)
