Department of
Microbiology
About the Department
The Department of Microbiology (along with the Departments of
Agricultural Sciences,
Botany,
Zoology, and Environmental Management and Ecology)
is part of the School of Life
Sciences, one of the schools that comprise the
Faculty of Science, Technology and
Engineering. The Department is located in the Thomas Cherry Building at La Trobe University's
Bundoora campus (building X1, reference D5, on the
campus map).
The Department was initially formed in 1975 by Professor John S. Waid. Professor Joan
M. Macy replaced Prof. Waid in 1995 and headed the Department until 2000.
The current Head of Department, Prof. Paul R. Fisher, leads four tenured academic
staff of the level of senior lecturer or above and three
lecturers.
The Department of Microbiology is balanced both for teaching and
research in a variety of areas within microbiology.
The Department has considerable links with outside institutes including industrial,
agricultural, government and medical laboratories, with some research students being
located there.
Facilities and equipment
The Department of Microbiology has the facilities and equipment required to
support research using modern molecular biological techniques. The Department has a PC2
microbiological containment facility, facilities for the cultivation of strictly
anaerobic microorganisms, and major pieces of equipment such as ultracentrifuges, a Cary
double beam spectrophotometer, a FPLC system, Real-time PCR system, a scanning
densitometer, a pulsefield electrophoresis apparatus, and an electroporation
apparatus.
Courses available
The Department teaches Microbiology within the Bachelor of
Science degree structure at the second and third year level. The first year of the
degree consists of eights units, two units of Microbiology are available to students in
the second year (when they take a total of six units) and a
further two advanced units of Microbiology are available to students in the
third year (part of the total of four units for the year).
Students acquiring high grades in all units in third year are eligible for the fourth
year course, B. Sc (Hons).
Suitable honours students may proceed to postgraduate study
at either masters (MSc) or doctorate (PhD) levels, as well as to a Postgraduate Diploma.
Normally qualification for an MSc degree requires two years of research whilst a PhD
degree usually requires at least three years of advanced research.
The La Trobe University Course Handbook
is also available for information on the
Bachelor of Science
and Masters of Science
courses.
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