The Master's program Evolution, Ecology and Systematics provides in-depth knowledge of biological systems with a clear focus to current research in organismic and evolutionary biology.
The study is interdisciplinary, so that competencies in ecology, biodiversity (including taxonomic knowledge), evolutionary biology, paleontology, systematics and phylogenetics can be acquired at different organizational levels and for different groups of organisms.
Our mission statement is to provide all students with an individual profiling based on a well-founded basic education. The students complete the five compulsory modules on Basics in Evolutionary Research, Ecology and Diversity, Species Identification, Experimental Design and Analysis of Biological Data, as well as an Excursion. For the required elective modules, we leave a great deal of scope for individual choices from modules of the participating Institutes for Zoology and Evolutionary Research, Ecology and Evolution and Biodiversity.
Our graduates will be able to carry out research-oriented activities at universities, non-university research institutions, museums, public authorities, associations or the private sector.
Imagefilm: The honest professor
Video: University of Jena
Biology has a long tradition in Jena. The city was the workplace of the zoologist Ernst Haeckel, the botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden and the geneticist and botanist Otto Renner. The infrastructure available to students and scientists in the field of Evolution, Ecology and Systematics is internationally outstanding and includes:
As mentioned earlier, distances are small in Jena. This applies too to that between research and teaching which are so closely integrated that students are able to grow confidently into their subject and to learn in an atmosphere of openness and cooperation between the institutes and tutors involved.
We look forward to receiving your application as a student of the MEES in Jena!
Indian student Sameer Khatri receives the DAAD Prize 2024.
Image: Nicole Nerger/Universität JenaIn 2024, the University of Jena is awarding the DAAD Prize for outstanding achievements by international students at German universites of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to Sameer Khatri. In addition to hissolid academic achievements, it was above all the 25-year-old's wide-ranging commitment that convinced the selection committee. He organizes welcome events and supports new students starting their studies in Jena.
Congratulations, Sameer!
More details can be found here.
Prof. Dr Christine Römermann (with spade) and other guests at the tree planting for Jane Goodall.
Image: Marco Körner/Universität JenaA tree in honour of Jane Goodall: Friedrich Schiller University Jena took part in the worldwide "Trees for Jane" campaign to honour the world-famous primatologist Jane Goodall. A loquat oak (Quercus rysophylla) was planted in the Botanical Garden opposite the Thuringian University and State Library. As Dr Stefan Arndt, Scientific Head of the Botanical Garden, explains, this species originally comes from northern Mexico. The tree had been acquired for a scientific project and had previously stood in a tub in the Botanic Garden. The loquat oak grows to a height of around 25 metres and the tree that has now been planted is the only one of its kind in the Botanic Garden.
MEES students joined when the University President Prof. Dr Andreas Marx paid tribute to Jane Goodall's achievements in a short speech. The now world-famous primatologist began field research on wild chimpanzees in Africa in the 1960s. Goodall, who celebrated her 90th birthday in spring 2024, was able to prove, among other things, that chimpanzees not only use tools, but also make them themselves. In the 1970s, Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute, which is active in over 30 countries. The researcher works tirelessly to protect and preserve nature. At the end of the small ceremony in the Botanical Garden, the Dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences Prof. Dr Lars-Oliver Klotz and Professor of Biodiversity Research Dr Christine Römermann placed a plaque in Jane Goodall's honour.