University students can join the research expeditions to gain field research experience as a research assistant, to gather data for a dissertation or thesis or if you are a medical student to gain expedition medicine experience as a medical elective. You can see more details on the various projects by downloading one of the PowerPoint presentations
| Research Assistants The Operation Wallacea field research experience is unique in that you can customise your expedition by choosing from a range of training course and research options to build up your own itinerary within any country. There are 150 academics and PhD students involved in delivering the research in the field and St Andrews University, Imperial College London and Nottingham University offer the option of gaining course credit towards your degree . Relatively few people have field experience working alongside real research projects and the Operation Wallacea research programme offers the opportunity to work with a range of academic teams to strengthen your CV (resume) or to help you decide whether tropical field work is of interest for your career. Research Assistants are involved in a wide range of tasks on each research topic and help to gather primary data. Field research programmes are available in the rainforests of Indonesia and Amazonia, cloud forests of Honduras, dry forests of Madagascar, savannah in South Africa, mountain desert in Egypt, or the reefs and coastal habitats of Indonesia, Honduras, Cuba, Egypt and Mozambique. After you have checked out the various options then please complete the Expression of Interest with information about your main interests and we will send you some suggested itineraries for you to consider. |
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Dissertation/thesis students Once you have decided on your topic you then need to read the background papers cited on the web site for your chosen topic and draft a research proposal. This is then sent to the senior scientist for your project and also to our Senior Dissertation Advisor for comment. You will also need to find an internal supervisor at your university. Their comments are designed to make sure that the project you are proposing can be delivered in the field and is sufficiently rigorous to produce a strong thesis. You then pick up these changes and submit your final research plan by 1 April 2010. Have a look at the page which describes how you prepare for your field project and what is expected of you on site. In the field you work with your specialist supervisor on a daily basis but report on a weekly basis to a Senior Scientist at each of the research centres. The Senior Scientists are academics with a strong publication record and who are excellent statisticians and good with helping students design projects. At the end of your stay on site you need to have written your Introduction and Methods sections and also given a PowerPoint presentation about your project and initial results to the other students and scientists on site. Using this approach 85% of the students who do projects with us get a First or Upper Second for their dissertations and a few have won the best dissertation for their university (eg Manchester this last year, Oxford etc). However, we cannot give you a good project - you have to show the initiative and drive to design and implement your project. We do though provide a framework in which good students should be able to get a first class research project. |
| Medical Electives Operation Wallacea runs a programme, offering medical students a chance to experience real life, hands on expedition medicine. If you have at least 3 years of medical training and are able to take your elective during the period June-September, then you can make an application to join the expedition under this scheme. There are limited places though and a selection process to complete. In order to find out how to undertake your elective with Operation Wallacea, and to request an information pack, please contact the Opwall Expeditions Co-ordinator on info@opwall.com. Note that the sooner you get in contact, the more chance you have of securing a place for the summer. We are currently offering the medical elective scheme in Honduras only. As a medical elective student you are given training in dive medicine, medical planning for expeditions, tropical infections, envenomation procedures, planning and executing evacuation procedures, and general expedition life. The main aim of the elective is to develop medical skills useful in an expedition environment including supporting our onsite medics, providing additional first aid cover at each allocated site and briefing incoming volunteers on basic medical issues. There is also a possibility for you to be able to complete a small medical research project in areas such as public health and working with the indigenous people of the area. You are welcome to participate in the existing biodiversity research programmes at each site. |
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