Vacation Studentships at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics - 2024
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics (CDM) accepts applications for Vacation Studentships from enthusiastic university students with excellent scholastic records who are in the last, or second last, year of their undergraduate or Honours/Masters degree in a relevant field. Applications are strongly encouraged from underrepresented groups in STEM, and those that have experienced uncommon hardship and will be assessed relative to opportunity. These may include, but are not limited to:
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people
People who identify as LGBTQI+, women and people from gender minorities
People living with a disability or who care for a person with a disability
People returning to study later in life as a career change or after an extended break
People from a refugee background or low socio-economic background, or who have experienced domestic violence
These applications will be assessed relative to opportunity.
About the studentships
With six university nodes, and many more partner institutes, CDM is a diverse research environment to explore the myriad ways in which we are attempting to find dark matter. Our Vacation Studentship programme aims to provide undergraduate students with some insight into how exciting research is and how it is conducted.
Students will join a research project under supervision, or possibly help start a new one, with project topics which explore one of the many areas of dark matter detection in any of the CDM research theme areas: https://www.centredarkmatter.org/themes-introduction.
Projects can involve all aspects of dark matter research, from proposing or carrying out new experiments or observations, the building of detectors, analysing data, to conducting theoretical calculations or advanced simulations with the student shadowing one of our researchers on the project. We anticipate that the research that students do under supervision, will eventually contribute to peer-reviewed published articles.
The Vacation Studentship is expected to run over 8 weeks, between January and March 2024, with the timing to be negotiated between the student and their nominated supervisor. Vacation students are paid a stipend of $500 per week to cover expenses.
How to apply
Applications are now being accepted and should be received before 9am AEST Monday 23rd October 2023; they should include the following:
A cover letter (see below for further information);
A copy of your official academic record, including an explanation of the grading system used;
Your Curriculum Vitae;
Any supporting documentation of previous research.
Applicants should also ask a lecturer or supervisor at their current university to send a letter of recommendation. This should be sent by the lecturer/supervisor directly; applicants should not include reference letters in their own application.
Applications and reference letters should be emailed to cdm-admin@unimelb.edu.au with the above information attached (preferably as PDF documents).
The cover letter is important and should:
set out why you are interested in undertaking a vacation studentship at CDM;
set out the kind of research project you are interested in working on (and your relevant experience in that area if any);
outline which CDM research theme your project would fit into; and
nominate the CDM Node* at which you would like to undertake the vacation studentship.
Optional information in the cover letter:
if you identify as part of a group that is underrepresented in STEM or have experienced uncommon hardship and you wish to share these details in your application, please include them in the cover letter.
* Australian National University, Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Adelaide, The University of Melbourne, The University of Sydney and The University of Western Australia.
For any questions, contact cdm-admin@unimelb.edu.au