Evolutionary Biology

Our PhD/MPhil Evolutionary Biology programme enables you to undertake a research project at the cutting-edge of the field using different experimental, field, molecular, genomics, epigenomics and bioinformatics technologies. that will improve understanding of Evolutionary Biology. Evolution is the key to understanding fundamentalmany questions in the life sciences. To comprehend the diversity of life on earth, it is essential to know the evolutionary link between organisms and the processes by which new traits originate and are maintained. In the biomedical sciences, comparisons of model organisms to humans, emergence of antibiotic resistance, or the identification of pathogen strains from molecular information all concern involve evolutionary processes. Therefore, evolution is of central importance forto most areas of the life sciences. Research in evolutionary biology covers a wide range of questions about evolutionary patterns and processes in microbes, plants and animals. Particular faculty strengths are evolutionary genetics and genomics, phyologenetics, behavioural ecology and evolutionary developmental biology. The breadth of research topics is reflected in a diversity of state of the art techniques used, such as genome sequencing, epigenomics and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, but also field, bioinformatics and transcriptomics research, mathematical modelling. Examples of areas of investigation include:

• Evolution of shapes and morphometrics;

• Molecular and genome evolution;

• Evolution of networks;

• Organismal and behavioural evolution;

• Phenotypic plasticity plasticity and epigenetics.

• Theoretical biology and evolution of mating strategies

Students attend the university from over 150 countries around the world and there are various systems in place to help them adapt to their new life. The Student Immigration Team is a dedicated team in place to help with support and advice regarding immigration and visas and are based at the Student Services Centre. The student support centre is a single contact point for all students to help with matters such as finances, examinations, graduation and other matters. There is also help and advice on hand for matter such as integration into the community, learning English and making the most of the time in the UK. The centre of student life is the Students Union (UMIST), which formed at the same time as the university was created in 2004. It is run by an eight-member team rather than a single president. The athletics Union is responsible for the sports clubs within the university and there are over 80 health and fitness classes in addition to 44 sports clubs. There are around 250 societies and clubs in total across many areas of interest including a student run newspaper, radio station, a fundraising organisation, a volunteer project and across the arts and politics arena.