POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS

The Australian Government, University Faculties and the Department of Materials Engineering offer postgraduate scholarships each year which cover tuition fees and/or living expenses. (Permanent residents do not pay tuition fees, and are generally exempt from HECs.) Applications close at the end of October in each year and successful applicants are notified at the end of December. These scholarships are extremely limited in number, and are based on academic ranking, plus relevant experience and scientific publications.

Faculty of Engineering Scholarships

Departmental Scholarships

PhD Scholarship

Location: Melbourne (Monash University, Clayton Campus)

A PhD scholarship is currently available within Associate Professor Dan Li’s nanomaterials group at the Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

The PhD student will be appointed to work on a three-year ARC Discovery project. The student will be involved in the synthesis, assembling and characterization of graphene-based materials.  In collaboration with our national or international partners, the student will be encouraged to explore this new class of nanomaterials for use in solar cells, batteries, chemical and biomedical sensing, drug delivery, membrane separation, tissue engineering or biomimetics.

Please refer to our recent publications (Science 2008, 320, 1170; Nature Nanotechnology 2008, 3, 101; Advanced Materials, 2008, 20, 3557) for more information about our research.
Highly motivated individuals in a relevant discipline (e.g. chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, physics) and with a strong interest in interdisciplinary research are encouraged to apply.

Essential criterion: First class Honours degree (or HIIA equivalent).
The PhD stipend rate is $25,000 p.a. (tax exempt) for three years.
Applications or enquiries should be directed to: Dr. Dan Li.

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2 Postgraduate Scholarships in Materials Science and Engineering

Location: Melbourne (Monash University, Clayton Campus)

Solid-state phase transformation is still one of the most effective and efficient way of producing nano- and micro-structures in bulk materials for desired properties. Typical examples include ultra-high strength steels, ultra-high temperature superalloys, ultra-light aerospace alloys, and smart materials (e.g, transformation toughened ceramics and shape memory alloys). The shape, orientation and distribution of phase transformation products are important factors in determining important properties of these advanced materials. All these features are intimately related to the crystallography of phase transformations. It is now well recognised that the crystallographic matching of the precipitate and matrix phases defines not only the shape and orientation of the precipitate phase, but also the structural constraints to the nucleation and growth, and therefore the final distribution, of the precipitate phase. While some crystallographic theories have been established to account for the precipitation crystallography, there are still some crucial questions to be answered. Recently, the Australian Research Council has provided two PhD scholarships to a research group at Monash University to study plate- or lath-like constituents in model two-phase materials and those representative planar interfaces that are associated with plates/laths in rational or near-rational orientation relationships. One PhD project involves theoretical comparison of similarities and differences between a recently developed edge-to-edge matching approach and the phenomenological theory of martensite crystallography, while the other PhD project involves computer simulation of precipitate microstructures by combining the crystallographic theory with the phase field microelasticity approach. These two PhD projects involve collaboration and potential travelling to the Ohio State University in USA. The PhD scholarship is $25,000/year (tax exempt) for three years. Potential applicants should have First class Honours degree (or HIIA equivalent) in a relevant discipline (e.g. materials science, materials engineering, metallurgy, or physics). Further information can be obtained from Dr Jian-Feng Nie.
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 50,000 students across ten faculties and eight campuses. It is a member of the prestigious Group of Eight research-intensive universities in Australia. The Department of Materials Engineering at Monash has an outstanding record of research performance and an exceptional record in fundamental research in metallic materials.

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Atomic Structure of Nanostructured Materials

(Top up scholarships of $5,000 per annum - Several projects in materials science and physics)

The important and unique properties of nanostructured materials are often governed by a handful of atoms located at key positions within the material, such as at interfaces. Computer chips are famous examples. The integrity of just one or two atomic monolayers at the gate oxide interface can change its electrical resistance by one hundred fold.     
If we are to understand and manipulate the properties of nanostructured materials, it is critical to understand the local atomic structure. However, determining the arrangement and bonding of small numbers of atoms has hitherto been extremely difficult to do.
Several pure and applied PhD projects addressing this problem are on offer. They all involve the application of the world class “Double aberration corrected Titan” transmission electron microscope recently installed in the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy. This is the first instrument of its type outside North America. It has a range of advanced diffraction and imaging capabilities and has a spacial resolution better than 0.8Angstrom, one of the highest resolution microscopes worldwide.
Specific project areas include:

1. The development of a new method for the determination of the atomic structure of nanoparticles.
2. The application of new ultrahigh resolution electron diffraction and microscopy methods to determine the atomic structure, and hence structure-property relationships, in strategically important nanostructured materials (such as cuprate superconductors and core-shell nanoparticles).
3.  The development of the theory of electron scattering using ultrasmall electron beams (<1Angstrom) and its application to the interpretation of diffraction and imaging experiments of nanostructured materials at the highest spatial resolution.

Some projects may involve visits to international collaborators at the University of Cambridge, the Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy and Oxford University.
Top-up scholarships of $5,000 pa area available to candidates with APA or equivalent scholarships.
To discuss project details, please contact A/Prof Joanne Etheridge by email or on (03) 9905 1836.

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PhD Scholarship

Location: Melbourne (Monash University)

Two PhD scholarships are currently available within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

1 - “Development of Advanced Al-Mg-Si(-Cu) alloy technology for automotive body panels”

2 - “High strength 7xxx series aluminium alloys with improved damage tolerance”

The PhD students will be appointed to work on three-year research projects to be conducted in partnership with the Aluminium Corporation of China (CHALCO) as part of the Australia-China International Centre for Light Alloys Research (ICLAR). The two projects have a combined budget of approximately AUS$2.3m over three years.

The first project focuses on the development of alloys for automotive body panels and is directed to optimisation of composition and processing conditions to preserve primary sheet requirements, while increasing the strength of Al-Mg-Si(-Cu) alloys in the paint-baked condition.  The second project addresses high strength aluminium alloys with improved damage tolerance for aeronautical applications and involves strategic fundamental research designed to advance understanding of the strengthening and toughening mechanisms in latest-generation high-performance 7xxx series aerospace aluminium alloys.

The PhD students will use a variety of experimental and modelling techniques, including (i) alloy design, materials preparation and processing, (ii) advanced materials characterisation (metallography, x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, atom probe field ion microscopy), and (iii) evaluation of mechanical properties and performance (mechanical testing, including tensile properties, toughness, fatigue performance and formability).

Essential criterion: First class Honours degree (or HIIA equivalent) in a relevant discipline (e.g. materials science, materials engineering, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, physics, chemistry)

The PhD stipend rate is $25,000 p.a. (tax exempt) for three years.

Applications should be directed to: Dr. Astrid Nordmann, Chief Operating Officer, ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals (email: astrid.nordmann@eng.monash.edu.au).

For enquiries and further information, please contact: Professor Barry Muddle, Research Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals (+613 9905 4908 or barry.muddle@eng.monash.edu.au).

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