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Science departments

The 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. 

  • Solanum phoxocarpum
    Botany department

    Botany Department staff work with a wide variety of organisms, from diatoms to flowering plants.

  • Chlorippe seraphina
    Entomology Department

    About 100 research, curatorial, support staff and postgraduate students work regularly in the Entomology Department.

  • Amethyst is the purple variety of quartz.
    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.

  • 26-metre Diplodocus skeleton
    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.

  • blue crab
    Zoology Department

    The Department of Zoology deals with a wide range of taxonomic groups, ranging from microbes to baleen whales.

  • Round things
    Centre for Art and Humanities Research

    Supporting interdisciplinary research into the historical, cultural, social and economic significance of the archives, libraries and specimen collections of this world-class museum.

  • The Museum as seen from the wildlife garden
    Science Directorate

    Providing the focus for policy, planning and management for Museum science.

  • General Library
    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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