Mark Colyvan's Postdoctoral Fellows and Postgraduate Students

I have a terrific team of postdocs and postgraduate students here at the University of Sydney (see below) working primarily in and around the more technical areas of philosophy (philosophy of probability, philosophy of logic, philosophy of ecology, philosophy of mathematics, formal epistemology and the like). We're always on the lookout for talented and hard-working new people to join our group: honours students, masters students, PhD students and postdocs. Email me at mark.colyvan AT sydney DOT edu DOT au if you're interested in joining us. Click here to see the lineage you will be joining (as a PhD student), see here for information about choosing a philosophy graduate program, and here for advice about postdocs (and early career advice, more generally).

Postdoctoral Fellows

Previous Postdocs include:
Associate Professor Sam Baron (Postdoctoral Fellow on the ARC-funded project "Mathematical Notation: A Philosophical Account"), formerly a tenured Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Western Australia, now a tenured Associate Professor in the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, at the Australian Catholic University
Professor Ray Briggs (Postdoctoral Fellow on the project "Social Epistemology"), now a tenured full Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University
Dr James Chase (Postdoctoral Fellow on the ARC-funded project "A Paraconsistent Approach to Vagueness"), now a tenured Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Tasmania
Dr John Cusbert (Postdoctoral Fellow on the ARC-funded project "Mathematical Notation: A Philosophical Account"), formerly a Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oxford, now a Research Fellow in Philosophy at the Australian National University
Professor James Justus (AEDA Postdoctoral Fellow on the project "Environmental Ethics and Decision Theory"), now a tenured full Professor in Philosophy at Florida State University
Dr Chris Lean, (Postdoctoral Fellow on the ARC projects "Laws, Models and Analogies in Ecology" and "A Formal Approach to Legal Reasoning"), formerly a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Dalhousie University now a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Theory and Methods in Bioscience Group in the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney.
Dr Aidan Lyon (ACERA Postdoctoral Fellow on the projects "Comparing Data Mining Methods in Risk Analysis" and "Formal Consensus Methods"), formally a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the University of Maryland now in consulting
Dr Kelvin McQueen (Postdoctoral Fellow on the ARC-funded project "Mathematical Notation: A Philosophical Account"), now a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Philosophy and affiliate of the Institute for Quantum Studies at Chapman University
Professor Kristie Miller (ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow on the project "A Unified Theory of the Individual"), now a tenured Professor in Philosophy at the University of Sydney
Professor Katie Steele (ACERA Postdoctoral Fellow on the project "Formal Consensus Methods"), formerly a tenured Associate Professor in Philosophy, London School of Economics, now a tenured Professor in Philosphy at the Australian National University
Associate Professor Zach Weber (Postdoctoral Fellow on the ARC-funded project "A Paraconsistent Approach to Vagueness"), now a tenured Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Otago

Postgraduate Students

Christian Alafaci PhD candidate, holds a BSc/BAdvStudies(Adv)(Hons) in physics and philosophy from the University of Sydney (2020). His PhD thesis in philosophy at the University of Sydney is on mathematical models and the applicability of mathematics. His research is supervised by Mark Colyvan and Michael Nielsen.

email: cala4110 AT uni.sydney DOT edu DOT au

Magdalen Elmitt PhD candidate, has a BA/BPPE(Hons) from The Australian National University (2020). Her PhD thesis is on uncertainty in decision making. In particular, she is interested in unknown uncertainties, especially in relation to complex policy decisions such as those involved in climate policy. Her research is supervised by Mark Colyvan and Michael Nielsen.

Publications:
Elmitt, M. Forthcoming. 'Review of K. Steele and H.O. Stefánsson, Beyond Uncertainty: Reasoning with Unknown Possibilities', Australasian Journal of Philosophy.

email: melm8870 AT uni.sydney DOT edu DOT au

Tim Smartt PhD candidate, has a BA(Hons) (2008) and an MPhil (2011) in philosophy from the University of Sydney. His PhD thesis in philosophy at the University of Sydney is on epistemology, exploring the extent to which epistemic norms ought to deliver useful advice to actual agents thinking about what to believe. His research is supervised by Mark Colyvan, Brian Hedden, and Philip Pettit.

Publications:
Smartt, T. Forthcoming. 'Scepticism About Epistemic Blame', Philosophical Studies.
Smartt, T. 2022. 'Reconsidering the Rule of Consideration: Probabilistic Knowledge and Legal Proof', Episteme, 19(2): 303–318.
Smartt, T. 2021. 'Arbitrariness Arguments Against Temporal Discounting', Australasian Philosophical Review, 5(3): 302–308.
Smartt, T. 2019. 'Review of Sarah Moss, Probabilistic Knowledge', Ethics, 129(2): 430–438.

web: https://www.timsmartt.com
email: timjsmartt AT gmail DOT com

My past PhD students include:
Dr Nathaniel Gan (worked in cyber-security in private industry and is now a postdoc in Philosophy at the National University of Singapore)
Dr Adam La Caze (who now holds a tenured senior lectureship in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Queensland)
Dr Fabien Medvecky (who now holds a tenured senior lectureship in the Centre for Science Communication at the University of Otago)
Professor Kristie Miller (who is now a tenured Professor in Philosophy at the University of Sydney)
Professor Mitch Parsell (currently Academic Executive Director, University of Tasmania)
Dr Steven Robertson (who formerly worked for the Australian Law Reform Commission and is now Assistant Director in Office of the Australian Information Commissioner)
and Professor Katie Steele (who was a tenured Associate Professor in Philosophy at the London School of Economics and is now a tenured Professor in Philosphy at the Australian National University)

Average completion time is 3.5 years.

I was also an external member of the supervisory committee of Professor James Justus at the University of Texas at Austin, an external co-supervisor for Professor Ray Briggs at MIT, and an external member of the advisory committee of Dr Aidan Lyon at the Australian National University.

Last updated: 16 June 2023

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