Fluorescence microscopy enables members of Prof. Brett Neilan's group to acquire revealing qualitative data of community structure in environmental samples.
History of The School
The School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences (BABS) was formed in January 2002 following the amalgamation of the School of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, the School of Microbiology and Immunology, and the Department of Biotechnology (part of the School of Applied Biosciences).
This restructure was part of a major review and reorganisation of the science disciplines at UNSW that had taken two years, which included the amalgamation of the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Physical Sciences to form the current Faculty of Science.
Teams of people were involved from within the two former Faculties as well as senior administrators. Many factors were taken into account, including staff profiles (i.e. research productivity, future retirements, etc.), physical locations of Schools and research groups, overlaps in areas of teaching and research, projected student numbers (undergraduate and postgraduate) and relationships with other faculties.
At the time of amalgamation, BABS had 32 academic staff, and 30 technical and administrative staff funded by the university, 3 research centres, 140 postgraduate students and 70 honours students.