Honours Projects

Click on the Supervisor's name to see a list of their projects.

School of Biological Sciences

Professor Sureshkumar Balasubramanian - Phenotypes to Genes and Mechanisms Research Group

• Epigenetic regulation of thermal responses in plants
• Epigenetic gene silencing in Friedreich ataxia, a triplet expansion disease
• Deciphering the splicing code through Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS)
• Genome editing of splicing-associated SNPs using CRISPR

A/Professor Jeremy Barr - Bacteriophage Biology Research Group
Projects by negotiation

Professor John Bowman - Land Plant Research Group

• Evolution and development of land plants

Professor Robert Bryson-Richardson - Neuromuscular Disease Research Group
No projects currently available

Dr Richard Burke - Ion Transport and Metabolism Research Group

• Regulation of copper transport and homeostasis
• Animal model of progressive neurodegeneration
• Maintenance of glial cell function by copper homeostasis

Professor David Chapple - Evolutionary Ecology of Environmental Change Research Group
No projects currently available

Dr Shawan Chowdhury - Global Change Ecology Research Group

• Minimising the global biodiversity data shortfall
• Causes and consequences of insect migration
• Language barrier and biodiversity conservation
• Understanding global change’s impact on insects
• Insect conservation in the Anthropocene

Professor Steven L. Chown - ARC SRIEAS Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future

Projects by negotiation on SAEF areas of interest, see arcsaef.com

A/Professor Rohan Clarke - Ornithology and Conservation Management Research Group

• Ecological restoration of islands
• Avian conservation

A/Professor Tim Connallon - Biodiversity Research Group

• Topics in theoretical biology

A/Professor Carly Cook – Conservation Management Research Group

• Assessing the recovery potential of a threatened species

Professor Damian Dowling - The Experimental Evolutionary Biology Research Group

• Does mitochondrial evolution “curse” males to shorter lifespans?
• Can novel Wolbachia strains improve on current Wolbachia biocontrol methods?

Dr Maria Ermakova - Plant Energy and Biotechnology Research Group

• Genetic engineering of crops for improved yield and carbon capture
• Powering plants under heat: mechanisms of photosynthetic thermal resilience

Professor Alistair Evans - Evomorph Research Group

• Power Cascade Law of Growth in Animals and Plants
• Evolution and Feeding of Kangaroos and Wallabies

Dr Giulia Ghedini - Community Ecology and Evolutionary Research Group

• Probing the evolution of competitive ability in real time
• How predator alarm cues shape biodiversity effects
• Assessing the effects of global warming on ocean microbes

A/Professor Matt Hall - Evolutionary Genetics Research Group

• Sex differences and the evolution of infectious disease (various projects)
• Global change and host-pathogen interactions (various projects)

Dr Tom Hiscox

• Unlocking Potential: How AI can facilitate the development of essential soft skills for employment
• Belonging Matters: Exploring the impact of student inclusion on academic success and university retention

A/Professor Kay Hodgins - Plant Ecological Genomics Research Group

• Developing climate resilient grassland restoration strategies
• Climate adaptation in Australian wild sorghum
• Museumoics and the evolution of supergenes

Dr Scarlett Howard - Integrative Cognition, Ecology and Bio-Inspiration (ICEB) Research Group

• One, two, bee: Numerical abilities in foraging honeybees
• How does a miniature brain learn big things? The role of reinforcement in simple and complex learning by bees
• Can a bee predict the future? Pattern prediction by the miniature brains of bees
• Is an insect an individual or a superorganism? Exploring individuality in complex and impossible learning tasks

Dr Chris Lee - Plant physiology and ecology

• Banded Vegetation Patterns in Arid Environments

Professor Dustin Marshall - Marine Evolutionary Ecology Research Group

• Assessing fisheries assessments
• Relative nucleus size and variable environments
• Phytoplankton depletion around man made structures

A/Professor Michael McDonald - Experimental Evolution Research Group

• Experimental evolution of an artificial microbiome

Dr Matt McGee - Behavioural Studies Research Group

• High-throughput phenomics of the vertebral column
• Colour pattern evolution in fishes
• Integrating fossils with genomes to infer divergence times
• Using computer vision to understand animal movement
• Using computer vision to quantify 3D skull data
• Identifying invasive species using large biodiversity datasets

Professor Melodie McGeoch – McGeoch Research Group

• Project by  negotiation

A/Professor Christen Mirth - Developmental Responses to Environmental Change Research Group

• Developmental responses to environmental change
• The costs of coping with environmental stress
• Growing up in a changing world: how does adaptation to novel environments affect larval tolerance to thermal and nutritional stress?

Dr Keyne Monro - Evolutionary Ecology Research Group

• Climate adaptation and extinction risk in coastal marine systems
• Evolution and maintenance of species barriers
• Genetic markers for monitoring species responses to climate change
• Projects by negotiation

Dr Travis Park - Evomorph Research Group

• The adaptive soundscape of echolocation

Professor Anne Peters - Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology of Birds Research Group

• Climate change impacts on parental care in the Endangered purple-crowned fairy-wren
• Molecular Ecology and Climate Change: Microclimate impacts on early life telomere length
• Molecular Ecology Technique Development: Quantifying the effect of DNA degradation on telomere length quantification
• Invertebrate prey availability across microhabitats in the riparian zone of the Kimberley monsoonal savanna
• Projects by negotiation

A/Professor Matt Piper - Nutritional Physiology and Ageing Research Group

• Diet as medicine: investigating how nutrition can enhance health, suppress appetite and extend lifespan in Drosophila

Professor Richard Reina - Ecophysiology and Conservation Research Group

• Reproduction and foraging of penguins
• Projects by negotiation

Dr Emily Roycroft - Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics Research Group

• Phylogeography of northern Australian mammals
• Genetic health of Australia’s island mammals

Professor Carla Sgro - Genetics, Evolution, Biodiversity & Climate Change Research Group

• Does the nutritional environment of parents affect offspring stress resistance and the potential for climatic adaptation?
• Feeding ecology of Drosophila and its impacts on climatic adaptation
• The potential for transgenerational effects to increase or reduce climate change risk

Dr Sridevi Sureshkumar -  Genetics At The Core Research Group

• Mechanisms of triplet repeat expansions
• The association of regulatory RNAs in gene regulation

Professor Craig White - Evolutionary Physiology Research Group

• The effect of size and temperature on energy intake and use
• The genetic architecture of rates of metabolism and water loss

Professor Bob Wong - Behavioural Ecology Research Group

• Wildlife behavioural responses to a changing world

Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute

Dr Simone Li - Microbiome Systems

• Antimicrobial resistance in the human microbiome: transmission and persistence
• Large-scale comparative genomics of S. aureus isolates from post-surgery patients
• Faecal microbiota transplantation: how does it work and is it safe for your microbiome?
• Where on Earth are carbon-fixing microbes?

School of Psychological Sciences

Professor Mark Bellgrove - Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences

• Cellular Modelling of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Risk Genes

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr Yussi Palacios - Water in A Changing Environment Group

• Why microalgae bloom: how nutrient availability drives their surges