Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Welcome

Welcome to the web pages for the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, at the University of Sheffield.

We are one of the largest biological sciences Departments in the UK devoted to the study of whole organism biology.

Our research

Our research ranges from seeking to understand the mechanisms of evolution using molecular genetics, through to predicting the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on ecosystem function.

Our teaching

We teach seven degree courses in the Department, and a further course jointly with the Department of Geography.

In the last Teaching Quality Assessment, Animal and Plant Sciences received the maximum score (24/24) for teaching quality. We are ranked 4th in the UK for biological sciences teaching in the Complete University Guide, 2010.

News and events

Congratulations to Jodie Crane who won an award at the recent Biological Sciences Posterday [more...] and to Estrella Luna Diez who won a prize for the best presentation at the New Horizons in Plant-Pathogen Interactions Symposium.

Thawing permafrost more than 50 million years ago may have led to extreme global warming. [more...]

Ancient plant-fungal partnerships reveal how the world became green.
Prehistoric plants grown in state-of-the-art growth chambers recreating environmental conditions from more than 400 million years ago [more...]

Pufferfish at the 'beak' of evolution. Prickly pufferfish could hold the key to why humans do not continually replace their teeth and may lead to advances in dental therapies. [more...]

Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution. [more...]