PhD: Human Physiological, Biochemical, and Cognitive Responses to Repeated Daily Occupational Heat Exposure

This PhD project is part of the Cotutelle arrangement between Coventry University, UK and Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. The successful PhD Student will be awarded a scholarship from Coventry University with the supervision team being drawn from Coventry University and Deakin University. The PhD Student is anticipated to spend at least 6 months of the total period of the program at Deakin University, with the remainder of the program based at Coventry University.

With climate change fuelling an increase in the occurrence of hot weather, the risk of exertional heat-related injury and disease is expected to rise dramatically in both prevalence and severity over the next decades. People who work in physically arduous occupations such as those in the uniformed services (fire fighters, critical incident response teams, police and the military) regularly operate and train in thermally challenging environments and are commonly required to work within these environments across consecutive days. Although the physiological, biochemical, cognitive and health consequences of acute occupational heat exposures are becoming ever more defined, there is an absence of research exploring the effect of consecutive physically demanding workdays in the heat on human health, job-task performance, and cognitive function.

The prospective PhD project/s can be shaped to suit a student’s interest, but primarily will investigate the physiological, biochemical and cognitive impact of consecutive days of working in the heat performing simulated occupational tasks. This project is part of a larger program of work and the successful candidate will become part of this research team. As well as collecting detailed whole body physiological measurements, the student working on the project(s) will have the opportunity to develop extensive biochemical techniques to explore acute kidney injury and renal function/health, as well as inflammatory, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular health responses to repeated prolonged daily heat exposures.

Whilst based in Deakin, the student working on this project will use cutting-edge technology and analytic procedures to study the brain’s electrophysiological activity using electroencephalography (EEG). This will be supplemented with additional tools such as eye-tracking and pupillometry. Depending on the interest of the student, the PhD project can specifically focus the impact of working in the heat on neural electrophysiological activity or on aspects of cognitive functioning (e.g., language, memory, motor functioning). For more information and for initial discussion please contact Assistant Professor Ben Lee: ac2389@coventry.ac.uk, Associate Professor Doug Thake: apx223@coventry.ac.uk; or Dr Luana Main (Deakin University: luana.main@deakin.edu.au).

Advert information