ProfessorMaureen O'Malley

Project Opportunities

1. Project title: Symbiotic Synergies: How the Body Became a Chimera
Project summary: This project aims to investigate how central concepts in today’s revolutionary microbiome paradigm formed in earlier microbiology. We seek to study how the microbes inhabiting us came to be seen as symbiotic, and how certain concepts of symbiosis led to a new view of human bodies as multi-species chimeras. The project aims to generate historical and philosophical knowledge that can inform the metamorphoses biomedicine is now undergoing in the light of discoveries showing that health and disease depend on our microbes. Expected outcomes are novel interdisciplinary insights into the conceptual transformations that led to microbiome science. Benefits include a public-facing combination of scientific, historical and philosophical knowledge.

You’ll be working with a philosopher of biology (Maureen O’Malley) and two historians of science (Nic Rasmussen UNSW, Claas Kirchhelle INSERM). There will be some bibliometric work involved (training provided) as well as standard philosophical analysis of new historiographical material the historians will unearth. We expect you to gain a PhD by publication (3-4 articles).

Start date: Any time from March (RP2) 2026 to July (RP3) 2026.
Eligibility/skills: Domestic or international. Good Honours or MA degree. Relevant HPS background. Interest in microbiome research. Must be resident in NSW while carrying out the project.

This opportunity/project is part of the Faculty of Science Australian Research Council (ARC) Scholarship scheme and is now advertised on the Scholarship Office website. Applications are open and will close on 18 January 2026.

My main project at the moment is completing a book called Philosophical Issues in Microbiome Research for Harvard University Press. It should be finished in 2023.