The DISTAV

Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences

The Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences – DISTAV – brings together teachers and researchers from the Biological and Geological area who carry out research and teaching in a varied set of fields of geological, biological and environmental sciences.

Historically, DISTAV derives from the merger of the Department of Earth Sciences, the Institute of Botany, the Institute of Marine Environmental Sciences and the Institute of Zoology; since 2011, the Department of Biology has also joined DISTAV, in turn originating from the merger of the Institutes of Comparative Anatomy, Botany, Physiology and the Institutes of Biochemistry.

The experimental approaches used are largely interdisciplinary, as increasingly frequently required by the complexity of the problems faced and by methodological innovations. To this end, the coexistence in the Department of a wide range of specific skills relating to the various disciplinary areas is of considerable importance.

DISTAV provides 8 study courses (Bachelor’s Degrees in Biological Sciences, Geological Sciences, Environmental and Natural Sciences; Master’s Degrees in Applied and Experimental Biology, Marine Biology and Ecology, Conservation and Management of Nature, Geological Sciences, Methodologies for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage). Participate in courses provided by other departments in the fields of engineering, chemistry, physics, architecture, biotechnology, prevention techniques in the environment and in the workplace, cultural heritage, geographical sciences,education and medicine and surgery.

DISTAV is responsible for the Doctoral Course in Science and Technology for the Environment and the Territory STAT (two curricula: Earth Sciences, Biology Applied to Agriculture and the Environment) and for the Marine Ecosystem Science Curriculum Doctorate in Sciences and Technologies of the Sea STM.