Science departments
Brachypelma smithi, Mexican red-knee tarantula
The Natural History Museum is a dynamic scientific research institution that has been gathering knowledge about the natural world for over 250 years. Science at the Museum is organised into 7 departments and includes a world-class natural history library. Our research tackles today’s issues of biodiversity decline, disease, climate change and environmental pollution and we are one the world’s premier institutions for naming, describing and classifying all life on Earth. Our collections of plant, animal, fossil, rock and mineral specimens are vital to our scientific research and our understanding of the natural world.
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Botany Department
Botany Department staff work with a wide variety of organisms, from diatoms to flowering plants.
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Entomology Department
About 100 research, curatorial, support staff and postgraduate students work regularly in the Entomology Department.
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Mineralogy Department
The Mineralogy Department's laboratories, together with their collections, provide the critical infrastructure for their research, for visiting scientists and for their training of postgraduate students.
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Palaeontology Department
The Palaeontology Department is engaged in a wide variety of scientific research and commercial projects that focus on the study of fossils through time.
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Zoology Department
The Department of Zoology deals with a wide range of taxonomic groups, ranging from microbes to baleen whales.
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Library and Information Services
The Library and Information Services department includes our biological and earth sciences libraries, the digital library and Museum archives.
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Science Directorate
Providing the focus for policy, planning and management for Museum science.
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Staff publications list
Each of the seven scientific departments is highly productive, and publishing performs a key role in passing on the work that is undertaken.