University of Adelaide Supervisors: Prof Volker Hessel, Dr Matthew Knowling University of Nottingham Supervisors: Prof Dov Stekel , Dr Diriba Kumssa
Significant advances have been made globally in the development of “closed loop” agriculture systems on Earth; a closed loop agriculture system is characterized by its water, energy, carbon and nutrient self-sufficiency. These advances were made possible in part by the development of improved computational crop growth and fluid dynamics modelling technologies. However, the design of a closed loop agriculture system for space, which is motivated by the need to create human life support facilities for future planetary exploration, is significantly complicated, e.g., by the effects of microgravity, harsh temperature, vacuum, and lack of essential resources on biological development. Lessons learnt from engineering research on closed loop agriculture systems designed for Earth therefore cannot be directly transferred to space. A laboratory-based “mock-up” for a closed loop agriculture system operated on Earth can only partly mimic space conditions (i.e., “space greenhouse”) – this approach cannot capture all relevant space aspects. This motivates the transformation to a “virtual full-equivalent counterpart”. The design of sustainable agriculture space systems is also reliant on virtual environments due to the prohibitive time and cost required to conduct experiments in space. This project will adopt a process-based systems modelling approach, serving as a “digital twin” to identify key unit processes and optimal system control variables, as well as system defects, in a timely and cost-effective manner. This project will also explore how well our existing sub-system models, e.g., biophysical crop models, and their complex interactions and feedbacks with other system models, apply from Earth to space.
First 6 months at UoA, subsequent 12 months at UoN, with remaining candidature at UoA. This approach is geared towards collaboratively establishing key research directions.
What’s on offer?
A limited number of fully funded PhD scholarships for up to 4 years and some travel support to start in 2020 in the area of Sustainable Agri-Food Systems for Global Nutrition.
Contact
Please include details of the project(s) that you are interested in applying for, a copy of your CV and academic transcript; if international, also the relevant English Language qualifications and contact:
Assoc. Prof. Christopher M Ford christopher.ford@adelaide.edu.au
Deputy Head of School (International) School of Agriculture Food and Wine, University of Adelaide Tel: +618 8313 7386
Professor Ian Fisk ian.fisk@nottingham.ac.uk
University of Nottingham Programme Director for the Nottingham – Adelaide Collaborative Research Partnership.
Dov Stekel's Laboratory 