Find a project or supervisor
To enrol in a University of Canterbury PhD or Doctoral Degree, you first need to find a supervisor or join an existing (funded) project.
Option 1: Join a project
Browse doctoral projects currently available at the University of Canterbury.
Search Projects
A Critical Approach to Animal Assisted Interventions
Host Faculty: Arts
General subject area: Human Services, Sociology
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Nicola Taylor

Extraction of plant protein isolates
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Food engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Ken Morison

Defect-free membranes
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Chemical and Process Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Matthew Cowan

Novel catalytic plastic waste-to-energy technology for New Zealand
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Chemical Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Alex Yip

Applications of NMR spectroscopy in Chemical Engineering
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Chemical Engineering
Project level: Masters
Supervisor: Daniel Holland

Design of hierarchical zeolites for important reactions in the oil and gas industry
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Chemical Enigneering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Alex Yip

Granular flows
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Chemical Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Daniel Holland

Climate change and youth citizenship: activism and anxiety
Host Faculty: Arts
General subject area: Political Science and International Relations
Supervisor: Bronwyn Hayward

Language attitudes
Host Faculty: Arts
General subject area: Linguistics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Kevin Watson

Accent variation and change in England
Host Faculty: Arts
General subject area: Linguistics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Kevin Watson

Documentation and Description of Idi
Host Faculty: Arts
General subject area: Linguistics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Dineke Schokkin

Critical Analysis of Role of Alternative Media in Society
Host Faculty: Arts
General subject area: Alternative Media
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: LindaJean Kenix

Decay resistance of naturally durable eucalyptus timber
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Forestry
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Clemens Altaner

THRIVE: Positive Social Relationships to Maximise Wellbeing in Early Childhood
Host Faculty: Education, Health and Human Development
General subject area: Child development and caregiver wellbeing
Project level: PhD

Harnessing photoheterotrophic metabolism to convert methane into biopolymers
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Bioprocess Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Carlo Carere

Metal-organic Framework Physisorbents for Carbon Dioxide Capture
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Chemistry
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Paul Kruger

Parenting a child on the autism spectrum
Host Faculty: Education, Health and Human Development
General subject area: Clinical Psychology; Child and Family Psychology
Project level: PhD

Mindful Parenting and Autism
Host Faculty: Education, Health and Human Development
General subject area: Clinical Psychology; Child Psychology; Autism
Project level: PhD

Development of a smart material designed to attenuate oblique and direct impacts
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Mechanical / Materials Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Natalia Kabaliuk

Development of a novel "three-way" catalyst for hydrogen generation from water-gas-shift reaction
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Chemical Engineering, Catalysis
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Alex Yip

Socio-ecological co-benefits of urban blue-green infrastructure and community resilience (applications have now closed)
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Urban resilience; blue-green infrastructure
Project level: PhD
Supervisors: Ed Challies, Rita Dionisio

Enabling 'go-hard, go-early' for novel pathogen incursion using electrical and molecular detection tools
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Bioengineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Ian Dickie

Investigation of Jack-in-the-box Systems
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Chemistry
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Sarah Masters

Hydrogen storage materials
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Chemistry
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Sarah Masters

Towards in vitro brain model
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Tissue engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Yilei Zhang

Bio-inspired monolithic biodegradable plate system for bone fracture fixation
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Biomaterials
Project level: Masters
Supervisor: Mark Staiger

A computer chip that thinks like the brain
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Nanotechnology, Neuromorphic computing
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Simon Brown

Artery Inflammation
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Biochemistry, Immunology, Cell biology
Project level: Masters
Supervisor: Steven Gieseg

Imaging and Detecting Vascular diase
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Biochemistry
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Steven Gieseg

Local-global principles for divisibility in algebraic groups
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Brendan Creutz

Descent algorithms for finding rational points on curves
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Brendan Creutz

Rational points and zero-cycles on bielliptic surfaces
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Brendan Creutz

Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space methods in dynamical systems
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Rua Murray

Dynamical systems and ergodic theory
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Rua Murray

Matroid theory
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Charles Semple

Topological and finite circle geometries and their automorphism groups
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Gunter Steinke

Post-quantum Cryptosystems from Diophantine equations
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Felipe Voloch

Sudoku and geometry over the integers modulo 3
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: Masters
Supervisor: Geertrui Van de Voorde

Axiomatic planes
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Geertrui Van de Voorde

Generalised quadrangles/polygons
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Geertrui Van de Voorde

Designs and their codes
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Pure Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Geertrui Van de Voorde

Crisis and Change
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Clemency Montelle

Ethnomathematics
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Mathematics Education
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Clemency Montelle

Mathematical themes from ancient mathematics
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: History and Philosophy of Mathematics Education
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Clemency Montelle

Mathematical themes from ancient mathematics
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Clemency Montelle

No flow limit for Bingham fluid flow
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Miguel Moyers Gonzalez

Bubble dynamics in an elastoviscoplastic medium
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Miguel Moyers Gonzalez

Data driven analysis of dynamical systems
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Rua Murray

Optimisation methods in transient dynamics
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Rua Murray

Pulses in heterogeneous media
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: Masters
Supervisor: Rua Murray

Mathematics of medicine
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Rua Murray

Modelling spread of COVID-19
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Michael Plank

Spatial moment dynamics for invasive populations
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Michael Plank

Marine ecosystems and fishing
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Michael Plank

Combinatorics of reticulate evolution
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Charles Semple

Fluid-particle interactions for granular flows
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: Masters
Supervisor: Phillip Wilson

Pseudo-wake structure in colliding turbulent boundary layers
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics
Project level: Masters
Supervisor: Phillip Wilson

Turbulence in the Deep Ocean
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: applied Mathematics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Phillip Wilson

Efficient survey designs
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Jennifer Brown

Spatial patterns in ecological models
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Jennifer Brown

Dose-Response Analysis
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Daniel Gerhard

Spatio-temporal modelling of environmental and crop management effects on sensory scores and chemistry profiles using hi
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Daniel Gerhard

Integrated multi-modal sensing, and machine learning application
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Thomas Li

3D volumetric and point-cloud data machine learning algorithms
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Thomas Li

Crime and punishment in England
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Elena Moltchanova

Heights of army and navy recruits
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Elena Moltchanova

Dynamic economic control charts for monitoring epidemics
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Elena Moltchanova

Analysis of spatio-temporal trends in NZ traffic & implications for benchmarking and implementation of self-driving cars
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Elena Moltchanova

Parsimonious models for multivariate time series
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Marco Reale

Spatially Balanced Sampling of Natural Resources
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Blair Robertson

Decision Trees for Statistical Learning
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Blair Robertson

Stochastic properties of speciation and extinction models
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: Masters
Supervisor: Mike Steel

Discrete random models in evolutionary biology
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Statistics and Data Science
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Mike Steel

Teen anxiety and parenting
Host Faculty: Education, Health and Human Development
General subject area: Psychology
Project level: PhD

Superconducting Power Electronics
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Power Electronics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Bill Heffernan

Impacts of Australian bushfires on New Zealand glacial environments
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Glacier-climate
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Heather Purdie

Multi-Physics Power Transformer Model for Digital Twin
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Electrical Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Andrew Lapthorn

Using ecological community data to optimise the sensitivity and specificity of biosecurity surveillance networks
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Applied Mathematics and biosecurity
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Steve Pawson

Superhuman Sports to Foster Engagement in Playful Physical Activities
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Computer science; applied games; mixed reality
Project level: PhD

Combining technology and behavioural science to improve citizen-science monitoring of biosecurity risks
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Psychology, behaviour change, biosecurity
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Don Hine

Cultivating Extremophilic Microorganisms from the Mt Erebus Geothermal System on Ross Island, Antarctica
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Microbiology
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Matthew Stott

Transforming New Zealand's ICT Workforce using Digital Personalized Interactive Training
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Artificial Intelligence in Education
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Tanja Mitrovic

Transforming New Zealand’s ICT workforce using digital personalized interactive Training (Sofrware Eng sub-project)
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Software Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Matthias Galster

Biomimetic sensors and neurocomputing algorithms
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: neurocomputing, machine learning, artificial intel
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Yilei Zhang

Knowledge generation for smart design and manufacturing
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Mechanical engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Yilei Zhang

Development of engineered wood products utilizing small-diameter softwood and hardwood trees
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Timber engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Hyungsuk (Thomas) Lim

Swimming Lane Distribution Simulation
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: computer science, sociology, statistics
Project level: Master's
Supervisor: Christoph Bartneck

Ethical Asymmetry Perception in HRI
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: psychology, human-robot interaction, ethics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Christoph Bartneck

Valence Free Racialization In HRI
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Psychology
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Christoph Bartneck

Swimming Markup Language
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: computer science, sport, health, design
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Christoph Bartneck

Microstructural imaging of live Maple trees
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Chemical and Process Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisors: Matt James Watson, Daniel Holland

Creating hair-protein materials via a self-assembly mesophase approach
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Biomedical Sciences, biophysics, protein chemistry
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Volker Nock

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) modelling of engineered novel biomaterials for wastewater treatment
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Water Environmental Engineering
Project level: Master's
Supervisor: Aisling O'Sullivan

Is cannabis safe to use during pregnancy? Integrated multi-omic and functional analyses of the genomic and molecular imp
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Genetics and epigenetics
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Amy Osborne

Mathematical & computation techniques to enable hybrid network transient and fault analysis
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Neville Watson

Mathematical & computation techniques to enable hybrid network dynamic analysis
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Neville Watson

Social-ecological dimensions of freshwater fish management
Host Faculty: Science
General subject area: Human geography, social-ecological systems, enviro
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Ed Challies

Fungal biosynthesis of compounds for enteric methane mitigation
Host Faculty: Engineering
General subject area: Synthetic biology, biochemistry
Project level: PhD
Supervisor: Sarah Kessans

Option 2: Find a supervisor
Explore UC research profiles to identify academics who are conducting research in your topic area and who may be interested in becoming a supervisor of your research.