· Integrating biological experimentation with computational analysis to extend our basic knowledge in plant science?
· Using mathematical analysis and modelling to help understand how genes control plant development?
· Scientific visualisation of simulations of how plants grow, compete, and interact with insects in their environment?
· Applying computational science and artificial intelligence algorithms to biological research?
· Applying virtual reality techniques for visualising plant science problems?
· Developing pedagogies using computational models for teaching and learning of dynamic concepts in the life sciences?
Research in our lab integrates cutting edge work on computational modelling in collaboration with researchers from the University of Queensland Schools of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering; Land, Crop and Food Sciences; Mathematics and Physics; and Biological Sciences as well as the Centre for Marine Studies and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research. If you have a desire to contribute to multi-disciplinary research in a rapidly expanding field and expect to graduate this year with a good honours degree in science, engineering or a related area or have equivalent qualifications, then we would like to hear from you.
A $7 500 top-up scholarship is available for a PhD student in modelling plant structure and function (3 years with possible 6 month extension). The broad aims of the project are to use computational models of individual mangrove trees to investigate plant performance under global climate change. A background in plant physiology or mathematical biology is preferable.
Principal investigators are Dr Jim Hanan, Centre for Biological Information Technology, University of Queensland (http://www.cbit.uq.edu.au/jim, http://www.uq.edu.au/uqresearchers/researcher/hananjs.html?uv_category=pub ) and Assoc Prof Catherine Lovelock, Centre for Marine Studies and School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland (http://cms.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=91201; http://www.uq.edu.au/uqresearchers/researcher/lovelockce.html?uv_category=pub )
Please forward a statement of interest and CV to Jim (j.hanan@uq.edu.au) or Catherine (c.lovelock@uq.edu.au).
These projects can be scaled to be suitable for either Honours and PhD research.
Our group is always interested to hear from prospective post-graduates wishing to pursue research with us. Contact us by sending e-mail to j.hanan@uq.edu.au. Scholarships are available from University of Queensland sources and Australian Postgraduate Awards. Further details are available at http://www.uq.edu.au/grad-school/
For information about virtual plants and related matters point your browser to Virtual Plants
Further information is also available about the University of Queensland, and its research environment.
The complexity of the phenology, physiology and canopy development of macadamia make it a challenging area of study. This project will provide the opportunity to apply the latest in functional structural plant modelling techniques to integrate existing hypotheses, use the resulting models to discover where our understanding is incomplete, then to investigate the system in field studies. This research will form the basis for future systems that can be applied to the broader tropical fruit and nut industry. Areas of particular interest in these studies of macadamia include:
·
Physiology,
phenology and consistency of flowering
·
Carbon allocation,
including aspects of carbon storage
·
Responses to
planting density and pruning, including impact on the light environment
These studies will involve the student in work with the macadamia industry from northern New South Wales to Bundaberg, and will be supported by expertise in horticulture and plant physiology from the Queensland Primary Industry and Fisheries and the NSW Department of Primary Industries. The research will be undertaken within a group involved in similar projects on kiwifruit vine, pea, and soybean at The University of Queensland.
This project will involve the use of an iterative process of experimentation and computational modelling to explore aspects of the genotype-phenotype development of this model moss.
This project will involve the student, as a part of a multi-disciplinary international team of biologists, mathematicians and computer scientists, in an integrated program of research on plant development and function. The project will be based on an L-system modelling platform (http://algorithmicbotany.org/) designed for computer representation of the three-dimensional dynamics of growth of individual plants in their environment. The focus may be either on the physiological and genetic mechanisms underlying plant development and function or on the mathematical and computational methods for modelling them. The challenges are the complexity of plant structures and incomplete knowledge about plant properties and processes involved.
The development of plant structure in response to environment is controlled by complex molecular systems that can be described as networks. This project will apply mathematical and computational tools and techniques to help piece together the puzzle of how genetic regulatory networks in different parts of the plant, connected by long-distance signals, are integrated to control plant development.
Physiological studies and new computational capabilities for describing the dynamics of the growth, development and phenotypic structure of individual plants can be applied to extend our fundamental knowledge of plant-plant and plant-environment interactions. This project will look for insight into how physical conditions, resource availability, and the presence of neighbours, including weeds, affect plant structure and yield.
This project will construct a generic system for expressing models of insect behaviour on and around plants. It will draw on ideas from the areas of virtual reality, artificial life, robotics, and individual-based modelling to develop simulation techniques for insect behaviour in an environment expressed using L-system models of plants and microclimate prediction routines being developed by our collaborators at INRA. Major applications will include analysis of fundamental questions regarding the movement of insects on plants (rigid behaviour versus flexible responses to plant defences, predators and micro-climate) and how population level phenomena in insects emerge from the behaviour of individuals.
This project will improve communication between people and computers in the context of biologists studying the structural development of plants and activities of insects on plants. Software will be constructed in the platform-independent JAVA language to allow biologists to build L-system models by selecting options from simple on-screen menus of images of plant parts, plant processes, and insect behaviours. L-system specifications will be output in a form ready to be processed in the vlab. An extension of existing collaboration with Prof. Prusinkiewicz will be sought to investigate ways for biologists to interact with simulations by, for example, using virtual secateurs to prune virtual plants simulated in the virtual laboratory. Visualisation techniques will be investigated both for simplification of input parameters and for the display of the results of computer simulations. [An L-system is a formalism which allows very large quantities of data on the development of plant architecture to be compressed into very small and precise specifications of plant morphogenesis (Lindenmayer, 1968).]
This project will involve the student in development of interactive computational models supporting teaching and learning in the life sciences. The topic could be approached from either an educational or a computer engineering viewpoint.
Expressions of interest should be 1,000 words or less and address the following criteria:
·
Academic record,
including performance in first degree, or equivalent experience;
· Relevant plant science, horticulture or computational science experience (if any);
·
Research experience
and publications (if any);
·
The names of two
academic and/or research referees (with full contact details including email
addresses and telephone numbers).
Successful applicants must be accepted for Honours, Masters, or PhD candidature at the University of Queensland (see http://www.uq.edu.au/grad-school/admission) and apply for associated UQ and APA scholarships.
Dr Jim Hanan Phone: 07 3365-8234
Centre for Biological Information Technology
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Email: j.hanan@uq.edu.au
URL http://www.cbit.uq.edu.au/jim