Subject overview

Specialist facilities

We have constant-environment rooms, greenhouses, facilities for chemical analysis of contaminants, and facilities for studying and culturing social insects including a molecular lab, ant room and apiaries (Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI), Social Evolution Research Group, Insect Navigation Group).

Our campus, surrounded by the South Downs National Park, gives ready access for practical work in a variety of habitats and protected areas. We also conduct overseas fieldwork at field sites around the world such as Brazil, Fiji, Malaysia and Spain, and we run field modules in Ecuador, Portugal, England and Scotland.

Programmes

• PhD in Biology
• PhD in Environmental Science
• MPhil in Biology
• MPhil in Environmental Science

Evolution, behaviour and environment at Sussex focuses on how organisms evolve and interact with their environments. We address basic and strategic questions in both field and laboratory settings across a wide range of study taxa, and also use theoretical approaches.

Major themes are:

• how changes in developmental gene networks lead to evolutionary novelty
• the role of natural selection in molecular evolution
• co-operation, conflict and organisation in social insect colonies
• mechanisms underlying animal behaviours, including navigation, visual perception, escape behaviour and collective decision-making
• ecology and conservation of invertebrate and plant communities including tropical rain forests, temperate grasslands, pollinators and amphibian conservation genetics
• the measurement of environmental contaminants, such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and their effects on human and animal health.

We offer MPhil/PhD positions and welcome projects falling within our research interests.

We currently receive funding from a range of sources including Research Councils, the EU, the Food Standards Agency, Royal Society, DEFRA, and industry.

Our expertise encourages cross-disciplinarity and we hold two regular Evolution and Development seminar series. We have also established ties with other research groupings at Sussex, such as Informatics and Neuroscience, and collaborate with scientists in a wide range of external organisations, including formal links with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Research projects are initiated in the first year of study. There is an initial emphasis on learning techniques and School of Life Sciences Graduate Training Programme methods modules run concurrently with research projects. Throughout your research, you will be encouraged to interact with other PhD students and staff.

As part of your intellectual development, you are expected to take part in laboratory meetings and journal clubs and to attend a weekly seminar series. You are also encouraged to attend the broader seminars in the School that cover a wide variety of biological subjects. All students are encouraged to attend and present their work at national and international scientific meetings.

In addition to the main supervisor, each student has an independent co-supervisor or mentor. Progress is monitored by informal meetings, annual reports, poster presentations (Year 2) and oral presentations (Year 3).

Career development is an important part of our courses. The development of research and transferable skills is supported by the Sussex Postgraduate Skills Programme, which runs a large number of short skills modules, including interview skills, time management, oral presentations and thesis writing. All postgraduate research students complete a skills assessment and choose a personalised set of modules.

Recent thesis titles

Effective population size and its effects on molecular evolution

Evolution and maintenance of the isochore structure in vertebrate genomes

Evolution of human gene expression

Information gathering and conflict resolution in Polistes wasps

Inter- and intracolonial conflicts in societies of honey bees and stingless bees

Patterns of mutation in the human genome

Raspberry viruses manipulate plant-aphid interactions

Rates of adaptation in complex genetic systems

The evolution of animal body plans

Entry requirements

MPhil in Biology

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A in Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Additional admissions information

If you are a non-EEA student you must obtain clearance by the UK Government Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) for this degree. Please ensure you allow sufficient time for your university application to be considered and processed in time for you to apply for ATAS clearance and your Tier 4 visa.

MPhil in Environmental Science

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in environmental science, chemistry, geography, geology, biology or related subjects.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A in Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

PhD in Biology

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A in Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Additional admissions information

If you are a non-EEA student you must obtain clearance by the UK Government Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) for this degree. Please ensure you allow sufficient time for your university application to be considered and processed in time for you to apply for ATAS clearance and your Tier 4 visa.

PhD in Environmental Science

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in environmental science, chemistry, geography, geology, biology or related subjects.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A in Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Visas and immigration

Find out more about Visas and immigration.

For more information about the admissions process at Sussex

For pre-application enquiries:

Student Recruitment Services
T +44 (0)1273 876787
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

For post-application enquiries:

Postgraduate Admissions,
University of Sussex,
Sussex House, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
T +44 (0)1273 877773
F +44 (0)1273 678545
E pg.applicants@sussex.ac.uk 

Related subjects

• Biochemistry and molecular biology
• Chemistry
• Genome damage and stability
• Neuroscience

Fees and funding

Fees

MPhil in Biology

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £16,200³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

PhD in Biology

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £16,200³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

MPhil in Environmental Science

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £16,200³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

PhD in Environmental Science

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £16,200³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

Faculty interests

Dr Claudio Alonso, Alonso Laboratory We work on understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling gene function during animal development, and on how changes in such mechanisms are related to the generation of developmental diversity during animal evolution.

Professor Jonathan Bacon, Bacon Laboratory My research examines insect behaviour, and its underlying neural circuitry, in two escape-behaviour systems.

Professor Tom Collett, Dr Paul Graham, Insect Navigation The navigational strategies employed by insects enable them to walk or fly over long distances, find food and return to their nest. To accomplish this they utilise a toolkit of elegant sensory and ‘cognitive’ strategies. We study these strategies using traditional behavioural experiments as well computational and robotic models.

Professor Adam Eyre-Walker Rates and effects of new genetic mutations; the evolution of genome structure and recombination in mitochondrial DNA.

Professor Jeremy Field, Field Laboratory Our research focuses on the behavioural and evolutionary ecology of social systems, using wasps and bees as models. We are particularly interested in the fundamental questions of how and why helping evolves and is maintained.

Dr David Harper Evolution of animal signals, mass regulation by birds, risk-taking behaviour, bird ectosymbionts, declining farmland birds, osmotic loads of birds feeding in saline habitats.

Professor Elizabeth Hill Endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Metabolite profiling of environmental contaminants; toxicity to wildlife and human health.

Professor William Hughes Evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology of sociality, symbiosis and sex, particularly in social insects.

Dr Ted Morrow We are interested in learning more about evolutionary conflicts that occur between the sexes. Of particular interest is the genetic basis of these conflicts and their effect on the whole organism. We currently use the fruit fly as our model organism.

Professor Daniel Osorio Visual ecology, colour, camouflage and biological signalling. Cerebral lateralisation of visual behaviour in zebrafish and birds.

Dr Mika Peck, Peck Laboratory Our work ranges from defining conservation priorities of individual endangered species to investigating the impacts of global change on entire habitats. We are particularly interested in the mechanisms that generate and maintain species diversity in the world’s biodiversity hotspots and human impact on these processes.

Professor Francis Ratnieks, Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI) LASI is the largest research group in the UK studying honey bees and other social insects. Social insects live in a colony with a queen and workers, like many bees, ants, wasps and termites. LASI research studies the honey bee and other social insects ‘in the round’, addressing both applied and basic questions. The applied research is aimed at helping the honey bee and beekeepers, while the basic research studies how insect societies function.

Dr Alan Stewart Insect population and community ecology. Restoration of grassland invertebrate assemblages, tropical rainforest diversity patterns, and conservation ecology of insect groups.

Careers and perspectives

Many of our graduates have gone on to careers in research, for example as lecturers at universities or scientists at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Others have followed a variety of careers in areas such as conservation, agriculture or applied biology.

School and contacts