Botany
About Botany
Botany involves the study of the structure, properties and biochemical processes of all forms of plant life, including algae, fungi, ferns and trees. Also included within its scope are plant classification and the study of plant diseases, as well as the interactions of plants with people and their environment. You'll have access to excellent facilities as part of the program: UBC's new Biological Sciences Building, and the Biodiversity Research Centre, a state-of-the-art facility that is home to 50 researchers in evolution, systematics and phylogeny, population and community ecology, fisheries management, conservation biology, and theoretical modeling.
Program Details
You'll study botany through UBC’s biology program, run by the departments of Botany (one of the largest and strongest botany units in North America) and Zoology (another powerhouse). Undergraduate research options are funded through NSERC and UBC Science research awards.
Skills
- Identify, classify, record and monitor plant species
- Do ecological surveys and environmental impact assessments
- Manage a plant collection, for example, at a botanic gardens
- Search for new species Study the effects of pollution or new buildings on plant life
- Identify and purify chemicals produced by plants so they can be used in products such as drugs, food, fabrics, solvents and building materials
Programs offered
- Major or Honours Biology Plant Biology
Resources
Career Options
With an undergraduate degree
- Environmental technician
- Farm manager
- Floral designers
- Horticulturalist
- Plant breeder
With additional study
- Agricultural chemist
- Agrologist
- Botanical consultant
- Botanical field technician
- Ecologist
- Environmental scientist
- Mycologist
- Plant pathologist
- Soil scientist
- Taxonomist