Historical Background
Biology teaching at a higher level began in 1950 within the Faculty of Science of the then University College of Addis Ababa. Graduates from the program received certificate or diploma in Biology after three years of training. The program leading to (B.Sc. in Biology) was launched by the year 1956/57. This marked the beginning of the Department of Biology as we know it today. The Department started offering a Biology major-Chemistry minor, four years, program at the beginning of the academic year 1959/60. The Department has also been training Senior Secondary School Biology teachers in which, in addition to the Biology-Chemistry combined curriculum, pedagogical courses were included as a requirement.
In addition to running its own academic program, the Department has been handling Premedical and Prevetirenary students by offering courses that will prepare them for their prospective specializations.
As the four year B.Sc. Biology program matured, the Department has been revising its curriculum to meet its three broad objectives.
These are:
- Food quality and quantity improvement,
- Conservation of natural resources and
- Disease and vector control.
To produce graduates that would provide services in the three areas of the departmental objectives, the number of courses had to be raised to 40 in the undergraduate program; and the number of staff members that was only three, when Biology teaching started in Ethiopia, has now increased to more than 30. The Department is also assisted by staff members of the Institute of Pathobiology that have academic home base in the Department. In the earlier years, the composition of the academic staff was predominantly expatriate, but since the early 1970’s a strong and persistent Ethiopianization program has been implemented.
With the commissioning of the new Science Complex Building in 1980, and acquisition of scientific equipment that go with it, opportunities for a qualitative change in the programs of the Department had presented. The qualitative changes included:
(a) launching of the Graduate Program, and
(b) initiation of major research projects.
In addition to its formal teaching and research activities, the Department also manages two units. The National Herbarium that serves as a national repository of Ethiopian plant specimens and as a center of excellence for plant identification in the Country, and the Zoological Natural History Museum, with a modest collection of Ethiopian fauna, which provides visual education for the general public, students and tourists. Both units are also used by the Department for teaching and research purposes.
The research activities of the Department can be categorised along three major components.
That is
- staff-based research projects including graduate researches;
- National Herbarium/Flora of Ethiopia and
- the Zoological Natural History Museum
|
Biology
