About Our School

The School offers an exciting and diverse range of undergraduate teaching programs. We offer majors in Botany, Ecology, Entomology, Marine Biology, Zoology, Environmental Geoscience, Geology, Geophysics, Soil Science and Spatial Information from the flagship Bachelor of Science (BSc) program. We are also responsible for the delivery of several specialist programs, including the BSc (Petroleum Geoscience), BSc (Natural Resources), BSc (Marine Biology), and BSc (Evolutionary Biology). The School also provides high quality research training at Honours, Masters and Doctorate levels.

EES has a diverse program of research, which involves major collaborations with researchers nationally and internationally, and extensive external funding. The research interests in the discipline of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology are focussed on marine biology, terrestrial and freshwater ecology and study of taxonomy and systematics of organisms and their evolution. Soil & Land Systems research has a focus on soil chemistry and biology, pedology and spatial technology.  The focus of research in Geology & Geophysics is in continental evolution, near surface geophysics, regolith geoscience and mineral exploration. The School has a wide range of equipment and facilities, including field stations, some of which are shared with partner organisations.

The School hosts a number of research centres, including:

• Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability
• Australian Centre for Ancient DNA
• Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity
• Centre for Soil-Plant Interactions

It is also a participant in several Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs), notably:

• Future Farm Industries CRC
• CRC for Water Quality and Treatment 
• CRC for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration

The School is also a major partner in a cross-faculty research cluster, the Water Research Cluster.

The School has developed strong links with a variety of partner organisations. These include:

• South Australian Museum
• Royal Zoological Society of South Australia
• State Herbarium of South Australia
• CSIRO Land and Water
• SA Water

and South Australian Government Departments such as:

• Primary Industries and Resources SA (PIRSA)
• Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH)
• Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation (SA DWLBC)
• South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI)
• Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

A number of research staff from those organisations are located within the School, and a number of our staff have joint appointments with a State or Federal organisation. On the Waite Campus, staff of the Soil & Land Systems Discipline of the School are co-located with staff of CSIRO Land and Water Division and SA WLBDC.

The Head of School is Associate Professor Sue Carthew. Discipline Heads are Associate Professor David Paton (EEB), Associate Professor Graham Heinson (G&G) and Associate Professor Megan Lewis (SLS).

Where to Find Us