Head of Department Welcome Message
Welcome to the Department of Plant and Environmental Biology (formerly Department of Botany) at the University of Ghana. The Department is one of the five Departments within the School of Biological Sciences of College of Basic and Applied Sciences. The Department boasts of well-qualified and experienced faculty and staff to deliver on its mandate. The Department collaborates with partners across the world and provides a congenial working environment for teaching, learning, and research.
The Department currently runs programs leading to the award of BSc., MPhil. and Ph.D. degrees in Plant Biology with specializations in Anatomy, Ecology, Genetics, Mycology and Plant Pathology, Plant Systematics & Taxonomy, and Plant Physiology. The Department has trained several students since its inception, with some of its alumni in distinguished positions in industry, research institutions, educational institutions at pre-and tertiary level, private and other non-governmental organizations. Students with good first degrees from the department have the opportunity to pursue postgraduate courses in Plant Biology, Medicine, Medical Microbiology, Public health, etc. due to the excellent foundation the department provides to the students.
The Department, through staff research and expertise, has gained long-standing international recognition in Aquatic Biology, Ecology, Genetics, Mycology, and Plant Systematics and Taxonomy. The Department has a laboratory for Tissue Culture which is engaged in producing tissue culture plantlets of crops such as cassava, ‘Frafra’ and sweet potato, pineapples, banana, etc. for research and on a commercial scale for farmers. The Mycology laboratory, for example, performs analyses that are not limited solely to isolation and identification of moulds from foodstuffs, food products, and non-food products, but also in the cultivation, and production of edible and medicinal mushrooms. The Department can boast of the Ghana Herbarium which serves as a standard reference collection unit for verifying the identification of plants. The unit assists students and the general public on plant voucher specimen preparation as well.
There is “The Botany Society”, which is a vibrant student group in the Department that provides the students with opportunities to discuss issues of academic interest as well as embark on community services. There are regular departmental seminars held within the semester where an overview of research projects carried out by faculty, students, and invited guests are presented. During such occasions opportunity to interact with members of the Department is possible. For the Department to become relevant, we collaborate with and engage with all relevant stakeholders in teaching, learning, and research. Once again, you are warmly welcome to the Department of Plant and Environmental Biology at the University of Ghana.