Honours information
The Faculty of Science and Engineering is home to a variety of honours projects across its four science focuses - Marine, Earth, Plant and Environmental. Completing honours work can be challenging but is a rewarding way to begin your career.
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Admission criteria
If you are working towards your honours degree, you need to maintain a grade point average of a Credit or its equivalent, preferably have a distinction for your integrated project, can demonstrate improved academic performance or have professional experience in the area you wish to research.
Study mode and commencement dates
Whether you choose to study your Honours full-time or part-time there are three commencement dates - the start of session 1, 2 and 3.
If you have any further questions you can contact the Honours Program Coordinator.
How to apply
- Download and read the latest 2020 Honours Handbook
- Decide what area of interest you would like to study. Be inspired by our honours students, review the available honours projects and then find out which academic staff member may be qualified to supervise you
- Complete a Supervisor Agreement form to submit with your application
- Apply online through your chosen honours course.
Current Scholarships
The Faculty Science and Engineering currently offers scholarships for students interested in working on the following honours projects:
- Deciphering signals of the past - geochemical investigation of human remains - $2,500 (Associate Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau)
- Decoding coccolithophores - calcification at the base of marine food webs - $2,500 (Associate Professor Kai Schulz or Associate Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau)
- Groundwater nutrient and pesticides in the Great Barrier Reef - $5000 (Dr Douglas Tait)
- Waste to profit, new ways of value-adding to organic wastes in the Northern Rivers - $5000 (Dr Dirk Erler)
- Understanding the biochemical basis for the delicious taste and smell of coffee - $5000 (Dr Lei (Ben) Liu)
- Lipid changes during macadamia nut development - $5000 (Dr Lei (Ben) Liu)
- Can nest boxes assist the post-fire recovery of threatened glider populations? $5000 (Dr Ross Goldingay); project partners NSW DPIE, WWF, NPWS, SoS, Owl BnB (commencement mid-2020).
- MSc Scholarship in Coffee Varietal Trialling - $28,000 per annum (Associate Professor Tobias Kretzschmar)
Honours projects
Ecology and Environmental Management
- Connections between oceans and freshwater ecosystems - Dr Benjamin Mos
- Impacts of the marine ornamental aquarium trade - Dr Anna Scott
- Towards coastal sustainability – an Australian case study - Professor Anja Scheffers / Associate Professor Kai Schulz
Environmental engineering and waste management
- Recycling organic wastes into soil amendment products – impacts on greenhouse gas production - Associate Professor Dirk Erler
- Recycling organic wastes into soil amendment products – impacts on soil nutrient cycling - Associate Professor Dirk Erler
- Use of iron minerals to recover phosphorus from dairy processing wastewater - Professor Andrew Rose
Groundwater
- Groundwater nutrient and pesticides in the Great Barrier Reef - Dr Douglas Tait
- Uncovering the role groundwater discharge has in coastal greenhouse gas and nutrient cycling - Dr Douglas Tait
Medicinal plant chemistry
- Analysis of biologically active metabolites in medicinal plants (scholarship available) - Dr Ben Liu
- Understanding the biochemical basis for the delicious taste and smell of coffee (scholarship available) - Dr Ben Liu
Metals and toxicology
- Investigating pesticide and heavy metal distribution from soil, air, water and biota near expanding horticulture activities in the Coffs Harbour NSW region - Associate Professor Christian Sanders
- Chronic Mn toxicity to scleractinian corals. (SeaSim laboratory experiments, Townsville) - Professor Amanda Reichelt-Brushett
- Understanding metal toxicity to novel freshwater or marine species - Professor Amanda Reichelt-Brushett
- What is the chemical form of iron when other ions are around? - Professor Andrew Rose
Palaeosciences
- Archaeogeochemstry in human evolution context - Associate Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau
- Analyses of fossils to reconstruct palaeoenvironment - Associate Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau
- Geochronology applied to human evolution - direct dating of fossil remains - Associate Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau
- Deciphering signals of the past – geochemical investigation of human remains (scholarship available) - Associate Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau
Plant biochemistry, nutrition and pathology
- Analysis of nutritionally important compounds in food (scholarship available) - Dr Ben Liu
- How does microbial redox activity in the root zone of plants influence phosphorus availability? - Professor Andrew Rose
- Studies into stem blight diseases of Horticultural Crops - Dr Jay Anderson
Regional and urban planning
- Sediment accumulation and nutrient sequestration within mangrove nursery structures - Associate Professor Christian Sanders
- Catchment sediment load under different climate change scenarios - Daniel Rodgers (Jeremy Benn Pacific (JBP)) and Professor Anja Scheffers (SCU)
Society, culture and education
- Communicating science through interdisciplinary collaborations art/science interactions - Professor Amanda Reichelt-Brushett
Spatial sciences
- Coinciding weather events (storms, tides, surges, wind), amplifying natural disasters - Professor Anja Scheffers
- Building resilience to floods, storm surges, erosion, ecosystem change and water security by local councils - Professor Anja Scheffers
- Designing, simulating and implementing engineered log jams for river restoration - Professor Anja Scheffers
- Design considerations for constructed waterways for long term stability - Professor Anja Scheffers
Vegetated aquatic systems
- Insect and pollinators of sub-tropical mangrove systems - Dr Debra Stokes
- Mangrove ecology - Dr Debra Stokes
- Are ghost forests a cryptic source of greenhouse gases? (scholarship available) - Associate Professor Damien Maher
- Greenhouse gas emissions from aquatic and wetland ecosystems - Professor Bradley Eyre
- Water quality across catchments and estuaries - Professor Bradley Eyre
- Water quality modelling in aquatic and wetland ecosystems - Professor Bradley Eyre
Coral reefs
- Drivers of outbreaks of the crown of thorns starfish on coral reefs - Professor Symon Dworjanyn
- Effect of deep water upwelling on coral communities (data project) - Associate Professor Kai Schulz
- Coral Reef Biogeochemistry - Bradley Eyre
Fisheries and aquaculture
- Aquaculture of seaweeds, fish or invertebrates - Professor Symon Dworjanyn
Better ways to grow microalgae, invertebrates and fish - Dr Benjamin Mos
Marine chemistry
- Heavy metal deposition in estuaries downstream of intensive horticulture activity - Christian Sanders
- Climate change mitigation by ocean alkalinity enhancement (enhanced weathering) - Associate Professor Kai Schulz
- Manipulation of iron bioavailability by marine cyanobacteria - Professor Andrew Rose
- Biogeochemistry of reactive oxygen species - Professor Andrew Rose
Marine Invertebrates
- How climate change impacts invertebrate biology and ecology - Professor Symon Dworjanyn
- Examining the symbiosis between sea anemones, anemonefishes and zooxanthellae in a changing climate - Dr Anna Scott
- Investigating the reproductive biology and developing captive breeding techniques for host sea anemones - Dr Anna Scott
- Impacts of the marine ornamental aquarium trade - Dr Anna Scott
- Invertebrates in current and future oceans - Dr Benjamin Mos
Marine productivity
- Climate change / ocean acidification impacts on marine phytoplankton - Associate Professor Kai Schulz
- Decoding coccolithophores - calcification at the base of marine food webs (scholarship available) - Associate Professor Kai Schulz
Marine sustainability
- Marine invertebrates and plastic pollution - Dr Benjamin Mos
- Marine turtle use of sub-tropical coastal habitat - Dr Debra Stokes
Pest and Disease
- Managing American Foulbrood Disease in smallholder Pacific Island beekeeping systems - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Novel methods for marking Small Hive Beetle (Athida Tumida) - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Managing Greater Wax Moth (Galleria mellonella) in smallholder Pacific Island beekeeping systems - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Understanding and improving honey bee biosecurity strategies in Pacific Island countries - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Development of a bee hive design for the Small Asian Honey Bee (Apis cerana javana) - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Understating impacts of Apis cerana on managed Apis mellifera honey bees in far north QLD - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Novel approaches to sterilizing beekeeping inputs following bacterial brood infection - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Enhancing pest and disease management strategies for Varroa and Tropilaelaps in Pacific Island countries - Dr Cooper Schouten
Nutrition
- Developing a floral resource database for the beekeeping industry in Pacific Island countries - Dr Cooper Schouten
Technology
- Investigation of alternative frames/foundation configuration systems for smallholder beekeepers in Pacific Island countries - Dr Cooper Schouten
Training, Education and Extension
- Factors influencing income and resilience in small-holder beekeeping enterprises in Fiji and Papua New Guinea - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Factors influencing income and resilience in queen bee breeding operations in Fiji - Dr Cooper Schouten
- A scoping review of Australian honey bee industry levied research - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Evaluating the effectiveness and opportunities for improving working conditions for Pacific Island people under the Pacific Labour Mobility Scheme - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Identifying challenges and lessons learnt by young professionals in international agricultural research for development - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Limitations to women’s involvement in beekeeping: A case study of Australian women in apiculture - Dr Cooper Schouten
Beekeeping
- Integrating poultry in beekeeping systems for integrated pest management control - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Evaluating the nutritional value of pollens of significance to the Australian Honey Bee Industry - Dr Cooper Schouten
- Exploring regenerative beekeeping principles and practices - Dr Cooper Schouten
Physiology
- Phosphorus efficiency in buckwheat (scholarship available) - Professor Terry Rose
- The role of Mycorrhizal fungi in Macadamia sp. (scholarship available) - Professor Terry Rose
Nutrients and recycling
- Antibiotics in pesticide residues in composted wastes (scholarship available) - Professor Terry Rose
- The value of raw and composted manures as nitrogen fertilisers (scholarship available) - Professor Terry Rose
- Struvite as a recycled phosphorus fertiliser (scholarship available) - Professor Terry Rose