Summer Vacation Scholarships at Monash University
The ARC Centre of Excellence for the Weather of the 21st Century explores how Australia’s weather is being reshaped by climate change. We offer highly competitive scholarships intended to provide undergraduate students from Australian universities with an introduction to cutting-edge climate science and weather change research.
Summer research scholarships at Monash University are run over the summer break. If you’re interested in a research career or furthering your studies through an honours program, this is a great opportunity to get ahead over the holidays.
Research scholarships aim to provide you with:
- experience in an area of research
- an insight into future opportunities within research
- encouragement to pursue a career in research or academia.
If successful, you will take part in research-related activities.
Applicants should be:
- an Australian or New Zealand citizen, holder of an Australian permanent resident or permanent humanitarian visa, or an international student
- Currently enrolled as an undergraduate or graduate (coursework) student with a registered Australian or New Zealand provider of higher education
- Normally have completed at least the second year of an undergraduate degree
- Not a full-time, continuing employee of Monash University
- Students enrolled in their final semester are not eligible to apply.
For more information about eligibility criteria and program dates, please visit: https://www.monash.edu/study/fees-scholarships/scholarships/summer-winter
Applications close on Friday 29 August.
Slow-moving tropical vortices over Far North Queensland
Supervisor(s): Dr Michael Barnes (michael.barnes@monash.edu), Dr Chenhui Jin
Description: In recent years, communities in Far North Queensland have experienced multiple episodes of extreme rainfall and associated flooding, most notably in 2019, 2023, and 2025. These events have been consistently linked to the presence of exceptionally weak, often quasi-stationary tropical vortices situated over the region, which have resulted in prolonged and intense precipitation. Despite their significant impact, weak tropical vortices remain under-researched over the Australian continent. This study aims to address this gap by analysing the propagation characteristics of such vortices as they traverse the Cape York Peninsula. By tracking vortices with distinct structural features, the project will investigate the factors influencing their propagation speed and how their speed influences precipitation over Far North Queensland.
Experience required: The applicant needs to have programming experience in Python to be successful. An interest in weather and weather systems will be an added advantage.
Tracking cut-off lows with Tempest Extremes
Supervisor(s): Dr Michael Barnes (michael.barnes@monash.edu), Dr Chenhui Jin
Description: Cut-off lows are important weather systems over the Australian continent. These slow-moving upper-level cyclonic vortices that are removed from the extratropical westerlies can be associated with strong winds, heavy rainfall and severe convection. Several methodologies have been used to identify and track them in reanalysis products and other gridded datasets. This project aims to convert these diagnostic tools to track cut-off lows using TempestExtremes – a state-of-the-art tracking software developed for low-level cyclones. The resulting algorithm and climatology is envisaged to have significant impact within the Centre of Excellence for Weather of the 21st Century, aiding in our understanding of how these important weather systems are resolved in high-resolution models and how they may change in a warmer world.
Experience required: The applicant needs to have programming experience in Python to be successful. An interest in weather and weather systems will be an added advantage.
Global streamflow records for understanding the rate of onset of hydrological droughts
Supervisor(s): Dr Pallavi Goswami (Pallavi.Goswami1@monash.edu), Associate Prof. Ailie Gallant
Description: The project will gather and explore global streamflow records to analyse hydrological droughts, which are extended periods of much lower than normal streamflow. Multiple data sets will be investigated to establish a suite of gauge records, globally, from perennial (permanently flowing) streams. Streamflow records will be examined for their quality, completeness of record and suitability for the study. If time permits, following the development of the dataset, the student will use existing code to identify periods of ‘streamflow flash drought’ in these records, which are periods in which there are rapid declines in streamflow from near-normal conditions to very dry conditions, and will compare these across different regions of the globe.
Experience required: Familiarity with a programming language such as Python/ R/ MATLAB is desirable, though not essential.
Weather Synergies: Exploring Co-variability in Renewable Energy Weather Resources
Supervisor(s): Dr Rachael Isphording (Rachael.Isphording@monash.edu) and Associate Prof Ailie Gallant
Description: Weather resources—like wind, temperature, solar radiation, rainfall, and humidity—are aspects of weather that influence or add value to economic, industrial, social, or environmental systems. In Australia’s growing renewable energy landscape, understanding how these variables behave together is essential. In this exploratory project, the student will investigate how multiple weather resources co-vary across fine spatiotemporal scales (e.g. within a Renewable Energy Zone), and what this might mean for energy supply and demand.
The project will apply multivariate statistics, including copula-based approaches and clustering techniques, to identify co-dependencies, sequencing, and patterns in daily-to-
seasonal weather. This work contributes foundational insight into renewable energy planning and climate resilience. The project can be tailored to the student’s interests—such as a particular region of Australia, favorite weather variables, or type of renewable energy.
Experience required: Familiarity with Python and statistical/data science methods (ideally including multivariate analysis) are preferred. Curiosity, creativity, and a love of problem-solving are essential!
Looking for Antarctic Sea ice tipping points in CMIP6 models
Supervisor(s): Dr Elio Campitelli (Elio.Campitelli@monash.edu) and Prof. Julie Arblaster
Description: Antarctic sea ice showed a slight increasing trend until 2015. In 2016, the extent of Antarctic sea ice dropped precipitously and has remained at low or record-low levels since. Climate models tend to simulate a steadily decreasing trend in Antarctic sea ice coverage in forced simulations. This mismatch reduces our confidence in their future projections. Observed anomalies in Antarctic sea ice also exhibit increased variability and temporal autocorrelation, which researchers have proposed as potential early warning sign of an approaching tipping point. Identifying whether, and which, climate models reproduce this signal can help determine if we are indeed approaching such a threshold, constrain future projections, and potentially reveal missing processes in the models. The student will analyse CMIP6 simulations of Antarctic sea ice to assess whether they capture the observed relationship between variability, autocorrelation, and sea ice extent. They will examine the conditions and forcing trajectories under which these relationships emerge, and how sea ice evolves afterwards. This work will involve time series analysis using Python or R in a high-performance computing environment.
Experience required: Familiarity with scientific programming (Python or R).
Influence of Propagating and Non-Propagating MJO Events on Australian Climate Extremes
Supervisor(s): Dr. Abhik Santra (Abhik.Santra@monash.edu); Prof Shayne McGregor
Description: Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a key driver of variations in wind, cloud cover, rainfall, and temperature in Australia and other parts of the globe. The MJO usually moves eastward across the warm-waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific Oceans, but sometimes it stops or weakens to the north of Australia. While we know that the
MJO affects Australia’s climate, it is still unclear how the impacts differ between the propagating and non-propagating MJO events. This project aims to investigate the
distinct influences of these two types of MJO events on Australian temperature and rainfall extremes. We will also explore the potential interaction between MJO events
and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases, such as El Niño and La Niña, and how their combined effects may amplify or suppress extreme weather events in
Australia. Understanding these interactions is important to improve forecasts of extreme weather in Australia, helping sectors like farming, water management, and disaster response to prepare better.
Experience required: Experience with Python is essential, while capability of analysing large datasets is a plus.
The paradoxical impact of El Niño on Australian rainfall
Supervisor(s): Dr Peter van Rensch (Peter.vanRensch@monash.edu), Dr Michael Barnes
Description: El Niño has become synonymous with droughts in Australia, yet its impact on Australia remains paradoxical during its lifecycle. El Niño typically develops in Australia’s winter-spring, maturing in summer, and decaying in the following autumn. El Niño’s impact on Australia, however, is most strongly felt during winter-spring then dies off in summer, just as El Niño has reached its mature phase. One potential culprit for this unexpected decaying of impact is the shift in the climatological midlatitude storm track, yet this has not been formally explored. This study will use a newly developed weather regimes dataset to document this transition and determine the shifting role of the storm track in the diminished El Niño influence.
Experience required: This project will require a beginner’s knowledge of weather and climate processes. It will involve Python computer programming, so prior knowledge or the willingness to learn is essential.
Understanding Southern Hemisphere storm track trends using multi-resolution climate models
Supervisor(s): Dr Shixue Li (shixue.li@monash.edu), Prof Julie Arblaster
Description: Extratropical cyclones are storm systems that form in the mid- to high-latitudes. The mid-latitude storm tracks influence weather and climate phenomena in the extratropics, controlling variations in precipitation and temperature from Antarctica to Australia, on daily to multi-decadal timescales. Recent research suggests that higher resolution climate models can improve the connections between the extratropics and tropics, with important implications for the global climate. In 21st Century Weather we are developing km scale climate models to better understand these processes. This project will analyze climate model outputs at two horizontal resolutions, covering the period from 1950 to 2090 and including both historical and future climate projections. The aim is to understand how model resolution potentially affects the long-term trends of winter storm tracks in the Southern Hemisphere.