* The department was formed during the recent reorganisation of the Faculty of Life Sciences by bringing together scientists with shared interests in genetics, environmental and evolutionary biology who had previously been scattered among a variety of distinct departments. It traces its origins to the now extinct Department of Comparative Anatomy, founded in 1826 and the first in Britain to offer a Zoology degree. It also incorporates the Galton Laboratory, the first institution in the world to study human genetics as a science. We continue to offer innovative courses - we were, for example, the UK University to introduce a BSc in Human Genetics.

* Some great scientists are associated with the department. Professor Robert Grant, Professor Peter Medawar, Sir Francis Galton, and J.B.S. Haldane among others made their discoveries here.

Over 175 years of active research and teaching has seen the Department become among the best in UK

The Department Today…

* We continue to attract leading international researchers and communicators of science. Find out about the media stories of our outstanding scientists by clicking here.

* We are honored to have received the highest possible rating (24/24) in the latest government Q.A.A. subject assessment. Research has been awarded a level 5 rating.

* We have about 30 academic staff, 10 senior research fellows, 55 research staff, and have a thriving postdoctoral community of some 100 PhD students. The department also attracts around 300 undergraduate students from UK and abroad. * Many GEE academics contribute to teaching in Biological Sciences

* At a local level the educational outreach programmes are much valued by London’s community whilst we gain recognition nationally by making it into the news with outstanding scientific achievements. (Image on the right: An example of current research at UCL. This is a model of codon evolution to compare the rates of silent and amino-acid replacement changes in the gene and does not use any structural information -- see the website of Professor Ziheng Yang).

© 2002 by the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.