Overview

The School of Botany and Zoology has strengths in the areas of ecology, evolution and systematics and is involved in research and both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Most staff play a role in the undergraduate teaching programs, some of which are taught in collaboration with the School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Research in the School is concentrated in the areas of evolutionary and behavioural ecology, molecular ecology, population ecology, systematics, functional botany, physiology and neuroscience and covers a broad range of organisms and habitats. Despite the relatively small size of the department, research programs are extremely diverse and many involve collaboration with Australian or overseas institutions.

The School benefits greatly from its location in Canberra due to the proximity of a range of institutions involved in biological or environmental research including other departments at the ANU, the CSIRO Schools of Wildlife and Ecology, Entomology, Plant Industry, Forestry, Water Resources and Environmental Mechanics, the University of Canberra Schools of Science and Resource and Environmental Science, numerous federal government organisations concerned with research or research support, and major national biological collections, such as the Australian National Insect Collection, the National Herbarium and the National Wildlife Collection.

The ANU is well-situated for access to a broad range of habitats within a few hours drive of Canberra. Grasslands, semi-arid woodlands, sclerophyll forests, forest plantations, temperate rainforests, alpine herbfields, freshwater lakes and streams, marine estuaries and lagoons, mangroves and rocky intertidal areas can all be reached in less than 2 hours. Some projects in the School are conducted further afield including work in the tropical rainforests of northern Australia, the arid zone of central Australia and on subantarctic islands or in the Southern Ocean.

The School is equipped for research in a range of disciplines and, in addition, has access to the excellent facilities available in the university's Institute for Advanced Studies and the John Curtin School of Medical Research. Facilities within the School include 4WD vehicles, glasshouses, constant temperature rooms and chambers, animal houses, an Automatic Genetic Analysis system and extensive facilities for research in molecular biology, ultra-low temperature freezers, recirculating freshwater aquarium systems, flume tanks for freshwater research, small boats, survey, trapping, meteorological, ecophysiological, environmental, and biochemical equipment, Macintosh and DOS microcomputers, access to the ANU's UNIX network and supercomputer systems, and a range of other equipment.

The ANU maintains two field stations: one on the coast at Kioloa, NSW less than 3 hours drive from Canberra and the second at Mongarlowe, NSW in the wet coastal forests about 1 hours drive from Canberra. These field stations can be used for both teaching and research and include accommodation and laboratory (at Kioloa) facilities.

The undergraduate program involves three years of study for a BSc and a small percentage of students complete a further year of study to obtain an Honours degree. The Honours degree is a 10 month program of intensive study. The major output of the Honours year is a thesis based on a research project carried out over a period of about 6 months. As many as 20 or more honours students may be working in the department in any year.

More than 50 students are enrolled for research degrees (PhD, Master of Science or Graduate Diploma in Science) in the School and, in some cases, these research studies are carried out in conjunction with other departments at the ANU, with CSIRO, or other research organisations. The PhD degree in the School, based solely on research work and the completion of a thesis, is expected to take 3 years.