Plant Biology – (M.Sc.)

Contents

Plant products are of fundamental importance to mankind as food, animal feed, building material, fibres and medicine. How do we use this enormous resource? Plant biology is a central area within biology, covering many aspects of plant life and crop production. Plant diseases affect both yield and quality of products. Knowledge of plant functions and their interaction with the surroundings is necessary for sustainable plant production and hence sustainable development. The Masters programme in plant biology will provide in-deepth knowledge about plants as well as applied experience.

The programme has three specialisations.

1. Plant Production Biology is more oriented to applied science; the specialisation is based at SLU/Uppsala. One key issue is the way we grow plants and produce food under different conditions and cropping systems. Plant Production Biology will give you in-depth knowledge of the biology of cultivated plants and associated organisms.
2. You can also focus on plant pathology and join the Nordic Plant Pathology programme (NorPath), offered jointly by SLU/Uppsala, Copenhagen University, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the University of Helsinki and Iceland University of Agriculture. This is a broad programme, ranging from plant disease epidemiology and management strategies to interactions between pathogens and host plants at the organism and molecular level. Students are encouraged to participate in activities at all five universities. This may be in form of courses or by having advisors for the thesis project from two or more of the universities.
3. The third specialization, Experimental Plant Biology, focuses more on basic plant science, which includes regulation at molecular, cell and organism level. The aim of this specialisation is to teach an understanding of processes in living plants; growth, development and plant interaction with the environment - knowledge that can be uses in plant breeding, biotechnology or conservation. This specialisations is run jointly by SLU/Uppsala, Uppsala University, Stockholm University and Södertörn University College.

The second year ends with a project of 30 HEC, where you will be able to delve deeper into a subject of your choice. You will also be trained in how to manage research projects and to communicate with different target groups.