Department of Biological Sciences

General information

The department is spread over two beautiful historical buildings on the Upper Campus of the University of Cape Town, the John Day and the Harold Pearson Buildings. We have more than 30 academic staff, several research associates and at least 26 support staff. In addition there are several post-doctoral research fellows, more than 100 postgraduates, as well as, about 30 Honours and 500 undergraduate students. The Department houses the Bolus Herbarium, the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, DST/NRF Centre of Excellence (PFIAO), the Plant Conservation Unit (PCU) and the Animal Demography Unit. Other smaller groups coordinate research on conservation, ecology, entomology, evolution, mammals, palaeobiology, and physiology and systematics. We also host South African Research Chairs in Evolution and Systematics and in Marine Ecology and Fisheries. Our department is highly productive and contributes the major portion of the research publications produced by UCT.