Doctoral and postdoctoral opportunities in Forensic Voice Comparison

Doctoral students are sought in connection with the three-year half-million-dollar Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP100200142) 'Making demonstrably valid and reliable forensic voice comparison a practical everyday reality in Australia'. This is a unique opportunity to obtain multidisciplinary training in both acoustic-phonetic and automatic approaches to forensic voice comparison and evaluation of forensic evidence within the new paradigm for forensic science – likelihood-ratio framework with testing of validity and reliability.

The project will be centred at the to-be-formed Forensic Voice Comparison Laboratory, School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia http://www.ee.unsw.edu.au/. The University of New South Wales is one of Australia's major research institutions, attracting top national competitive research grants and with extensive international research links.

The lead investigator on this project is Dr. Geoffrey Stewart Morrison http://geoff-morrison.net/. More details about the project can be found at http://forensic-voice-comparison.net/.

 
Doctoral students


We are looking for two types of candidates:

1.      The ideal candidate would have a strong background in acoustic phonetics and also be (or have the potential to quickly become) knowledgeable and skilful in forensic science (especially the likelihood-ratio framework), programming (especially Matlab), statistics (especially Bayesian) and pattern recognition, and signal processing (especially speech processing).

2.      The ideal candidate would have a strong background in signal processing, especially speech processing, pattern recognition, and programming (especially Matlab), and also be (or have the potential to quickly become) knowledgeable and skilful in forensic science (especially the likelihood-ratio framework), acoustic phonetics, and statistics (especially Bayesian).

A candidate with a Masters degree specialising in forensic voice comparison within the likelihood-ratio framework would be highly favoured. An excellent command of spoken and written English is essential, and fluency in Spanish and/or Standard Chinese would be advantageous.
 
The start date is flexible but is likely to be early 2011. In some cases this may be dictated by scholarship rules. Applicants should initially submit a curriculum vitae with cover letter as soon as possible, both documents should be submitted as a single pdf to geoff-morrison@forensic-voice-comparison.net

If a suitable international candidate is found by 10 July 2010, we will make a decision at that time in order to facilitate Endeavour award application, see below (the deadline is tight because of the Australian Research Council's late announcement of Linkage Project funding). Otherwise positions will remain open until filled. The number of positions is flexible depending on the ability of candidates to obtain external funding.

We have a small amount of money (AU$10k per year) within the project allocated to supporting PhD students. This is envisaged as a top up to a more substantial scholarship. Potential students will have to apply for such a scholarship, but we will render all assistance possible to assist in making that application.

Citizens and permanent residents of Australia and New Zealand should apply for:

1. Australian Postgraduate Award and other scholarships

        http://www.grs.unsw.edu.au/scholarships/localschols/unswlocalschols.html

        The application closing date for a 2011 start will probably be mid-October 2010 (check the link regularly for updates).

International students should apply for:

1. Endeavour Awards

        http://www.deewr.gov.au/International/EndeavourAwards/Pages/Home.aspx

        The Australian Government's internationally competitive, merit-based scholarship program providing opportunities for citizens of the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Europe and Americas to undertake study, research and professional development in Australia. The UNSW internal deadline for the next round of applications is 19 July 2010 (the following deadline will be January 2011).

2. UNSW International Research Scholarships

        http://www.grs.unsw.edu.au/scholarships/intschols/unswintschols.html

        These scholarships include full fees and some living allowance and are typically very competitive.  Please contact us before applying.

3. Any scholarships available from the student's home country (we have experience with applying for SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships). See also http://www.grs.unsw.edu.au/scholarships/homecountryschols.html

Postdoctoral Researchers

 We would also welcome applications from postdoctoral researchers who have external funding (e.g., SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship) and wish to join our team. We will assist with preparing applications for external funding.

Visiting Students/Researchers

We would also welcome applications for externally-funded shorter research visits from PhD students and researchers from other universities. We will assist with preparing applications for external funding (e.g., Endeavour Research Fellowships).

Enquiries should be addressed to geoff-morrison@forensic-voice-comparison.net