GWPhD Studentship - Evolution of eyes in marine snails

About Us

We are a world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre. We use the Museum's unique collections and our unrivalled expertise to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world today. We care for more than 80 million objects spanning billions of years and welcome more than five million visitors annually and 16 million visits to our website.

Today the Museum is more relevant and influential than ever. By attracting people from a range of backgrounds to work for us, we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things.

We employ 1100 staff in a variety of roles, all united by our vision of a future where people and planet thrive. We need everyone to have the passion and drive to help us with our mission to create advocates for our planet and inspire millions to care about the natural world.

Our vision is of a future where both people and the planet thrive. Diversity is one of our core values and we strive to build a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. All new staff who join us learn about the importance of diversity and inclusion to the Museum and how to contribute to creating an inclusive environment.

We know we have more to do, but we are committed to ensuring that everyone who works at the Museum feels they can thrive and feel valued and respected.

NERC funded GW4+ Doctoral Landscape Training Partnership (DLTP) Studentship on 'Evolution of eyes in marine snails'.

Lead Institution:
Natural History Museum (NHM)
Lead Supervisor:
Suzanne Williams, NHM
Co-Supervisor:
Martin How, University of Bristol, Biological Sciences
Co-Supervisor:
Elizabeth Harper, Cambridge University, Department of Earth Sciences

Most shelled molluscs are thought to have poor vision (if any at all) and are unable to discriminate colour. These generalisations, however, are based on a limited number of studies. Here the student will investigate vision in a poorly studied group of marine snails (Umboniinae) that includes both species with large eyes compared to body size, and species that have lost their eyes.

We will address these questions:

• What are the evolutionary drivers of key changes to eyes?
• Do large eyes correlate with locomotory ability?
• For the first time, we will test: can gastropods see colours?

• Determine drivers of evolutionary change within a time-calibrated phylogenetic framework.
• Investigate anatomy of the eye and model spatial acuity.
• Undertake behavioural and physiological experiments to investigate visual acuity and test for the ability to discriminate colours or the polarization of light, which are not known to occur in gastropods.
• Investigate opsin gene diversity using transcriptomics; the presence of multiple opsins may indicate the ability to discriminate colour.

• Behavioural studies
• Histology and imaging (µCT, SBF-SEM)
• Bioinformatics: transcriptomics, differential gene expression, phylogenetics, mitogenomics
• Physiology: electroretinograms
• Fieldwork
• Public engagement

You should have obtained, or be about to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK. If you have a Lower Second Class degree, you can be considered if you also have a Master’s degree or relevant professional (e.g. work) experience.

We are proud to work at the Museum and have identified the qualities we all need to embody to reach our shared ambition. This sits alongside the Museum’s values and forms the framework for the way we work.

If you are interested in applying, please click below on apply for this job. You must complete the GW4+ DLTP Personal Statement questions as part of your application (You will see these questions as you go through the application process). The guidance document can be found below.

Please note that as part of our commitment to anonymised shortlisting, panels do not view CVs during the recruitment process. If you choose to upload your CV, our system will automatically pull information from your CV into our application form. We advise you to double-check your application form data before submitting as the tool may interpret CVs differently.

Closing date:
Thursday 8 January 2026, 23:59 GMT

Interviews expected: week of 2-6 March 2026