PhD Studentship in Environmental Science

Project title: Pollen-based reconstruction of Holocene climates of Africa during the Holocene

Supervisors:  Sandy P. Harrison, I. Colin Prentice

Project Overview: Pollen records from lake and bog sediments provide a record of past vegetation changes in response to changes in climate. Vegetation is highly sensitive to changes in both seasonal temperatures and in moisture availability, and pollen records therefore provide an ideal basis for making quantitative reconstructions of multiple aspects of the climate. Although such reconstructions have been made at individual sites in Africa, there has been no attempt at a comprehensive analysis of records across the continent during the past 12,000 years of the Holocene. Such reconstructions can then be used as input to simple models to predict how changes in climate have affected vegetation productivity through time. Such an analysis is important to understand how climate changes might have affected the resource base for humans and whether they provide an explanation for the adoption of agriculture. The goal of the PhD is to apply advanced statistical approaches to pollen records from existing databases in order to reconstruct climate changes across Africa at high temporal resolution and then to investigate how these changes have impacted vegetation productivity and the human resource base.

The PhD project is expected to start in 2026. The student will be part of the SPECIAL group, an interdisciplinary research team based in Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Reading. The PhD is funded through the Horizon Europe grant to the project “Ecological Archaeologies of the Afrotropics (EcoArch)” and the student will have the opportunity to interact with other members of the project based in the University of Oslo, Penn State University, and research centres across Africa. Although the PhD is computationally based, there may also be opportunities to participate in EcoArch fieldwork activities.

This project would be suitable for students with a degree in environmental science or a closely related discipline, with well-developed quantitative and programming (R, Python) skills, familiarity with palaeoenvironmental data, and an interest in environmental modelling applied to solving real-world problems.

Eligibility: Open to students worldwide. Applicants should have a good bachelor’s degree (minimum of a UK Upper Second (2:1) or equivalent)/master’s degree in environmental sciences or a strongly-related discipline

Funding Details:   Funding for 3.5 years, stipend (£20,780 p.a) and international fees via Horizon Europe, Synergy grant “Ecological Archaeologies of the Afrotropics (EcoArch)”, project 101224871

How to apply:  

To apply click the 'Apply' button above and create your account, and use the link sent by email to start the application process

*Important notes*

• 1) Please quote the reference ‘DRC26-006’ in the ‘Scholarships applied for’ box which appears within the Funding Section of your on-line application.
• 2) If the application system prompts you to submit a research proposal, please paste in the project title and move on to the next step in the application.

Application Deadline:  15 March 2026

Further Enquiries:  Sandy P. Harrison (s.p.harrison@reading.ac.uk)

Please note that, where a candidate is successful in being awarded funding, this will be confirmed via a formal studentship award letter; this will be provided separately from any Offer of Admission and will be subject to standard checks for eligibility and other criteria. 

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