Announcement of Opportunity: Trevor Platt Fellowship 2024

24 July 2023

Professor Trevor Platt FRS FRCS was a British and Canadian biological oceanographer who was internationally-recognised for his fundamental contributions to many aspects of oceanography and limnology. Over the span of his impressive career, he held many prestigious offices and positions of influence as well as receiving many high-level awards.

Trevor was also committed to the stewardship of the ocean and had a passion for the development of early career researchers (ECR) and capacity building. Having hosted Prof. Platt for over 15 years, PML is determined to continue his legacy of championing the next generation of oceanographers through the Trevor Platt Fellowship.

The Fellowship supports one ECR Fellow every year to undertake a research project at PML in any aspect of biological oceanography, such as:

• Primary production, physiology and ecology of marine phytoplankton 
• Thermodynamics of aquatic ecosystems 
• Physical and biological interactions in the ocean 
• Marine optics 
• Size structure of marine communities 
• Remote sensing of ocean colour 
• Ocean carbon cycle and climate change 
• Water quality and human health 
• Time series of ocean observations and their analyses 
• Ecological approaches to fisheries management 
• International collaboration and capacity building
• Ocean stewardship 

The Fellowship will provide a bursary of £15k to include travel, visa, accommodation and living expenses. The aim is to allow a visit of between four to six months depending on distance, living costs and science activity. It is expected the second fellowship will start in summer 2024.

Application process

To apply for the fellowship, each ECR applicant will be required to develop a research proposal and identify a relevant PML host scientist. Please visit Our Science pages for more information about PML's research and scientists. 

Applicants will be required to submit their research proposal, CV, capacity building & impact statement and a supporting statement by the PML host, by emailing careers@pml.ac.uk. PML hosts can only support 1 application.

The submission period will open from 1st September 2023 and close on 15th December 2023, but candidates will be encouraged to contact a PML host before submission opens to start the proposal development process.

Assessment process

The Application Panel will use five main criteria to shortlist applicants, based on assessing the quality and relevance of the documents submitted during the application process:

• Quality of the application
• Quality of applicant/CV
• Relevance of the application to PML’s science priority areas
• Evidence that the training will lead to capacity-building with potential lasting impact on regional observations
• Relevance of PML host

Online interviews will be held in February 2024 with a start date in Summer 2024.

This announcement coincides with the start of the first Trevor Platt Fellow, Gayathra Bandara, who started their Fellowship at PML this month with the topic ‘Adverse weather effects induced by climate change: How would marine benthos respond?’
 

Related information

Trevor Platt Science Foundation