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Thanks to Darwin, we know the process of evolution has shaped the bewildering variation we see around us. Through this Master's Degree programme students will acquire an explicit evolutionary biological perspective in the study of nature, thereby increasing capacity for understanding patterns and processes, on scales varying from the cellular to the ecosystem level.
Students from this Master's Degree programme in Evolutionary Biology can expect to acquire scientific and analytical skills, expertise in present theories and up-to-date technologies, as well as practical skills including teamwork and interpersonal skills; all in an international environment. After starting with a general overview of evolutionary biology, and what it entails to be a biological researcher, this programme focuses mainly on evolutionary genetics.
Emphasis is on gaining data science (programming) skills, with expertise in bioinformatics, molecular and quantitative genetics. Teachers include experts in human genetics, microbial, and quantitative evolutionary genetics. Expertise in phylogenetics of animals and plants is brought in by experts from our Museum of Natural History. The skills and knowledge obtained pave the way for future career paths in academia or industry.
Master's Thesis & Topics
To complete your studies, you will carry out a final project that is an independent and experimental, supervised research project aiming for the Master’s thesis. The purpose of the Master's thesis is to display your obtained skills in terms of data gathering, data analysis, and interpretation of the analyses, as well as setting your project within the larger scientific background based on scientific literature. You will present your project and its results in a Master’s seminar that follows the procedures used in scientific meetings. You will also write a Master’s thesis that describes your experimental work and its results as well as includes a review of relevant background literature.
Examples of fields for MSc topics:
Evolution of antibiotic resistance
Human paleogenomics
Life history of pre-industrial humans
Changes in gene expression in response to climate change
Evolutionary quantitative genetics
Phylogeny of Amazonian ferns
Specialization Tracks
The programme offers two tracks:
Evolutionary Biology (M.Sc).
Molecular Systems Biology (M.Sc.)
In the Evolutionary Biology track the focus is on deepening knowledge of evolutionary biology, ecology, genetics, and physiology, with a special focus on bioinformatics and computational methods for analyzing and interpreting evolutionary and NGS data, both modern and ancient DNA.
The Molecular Systems Biology track offers extensive training in modern molecular biology and education focused on systems biology (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, gene/protein structure-function relationships) with a special focus on practical laboratory skills and molecular interaction networks.
