Within the Department of Plant Physiology, the aim of our graduate program is to provide PhD education of the highest international standard, with a focus on both scientific and personal development. We have normally between 15 - 20 PhD students from many different countries around the world, offering students a diverse and stimulating environment in which to undertake their studies.
Our PhD program gives graduate students the opportunity to undertake basic research in plant physiology, plant molecular biology, functional genomics and bioinformatics, and plant biotechnology. Courses, workshops and seminar series are offered in which graduate students are integrated into an interactive scientific environment.
The department is made up of 15 research groups all lead by an individual principle investigator who run research programs on topics ranging from studies of how plants respond at the whole plant and ecosystem level to changes in climatic factors (e.g. cold and drought) and biotic stresses (e.g. herbivory by insects), down to studies designed to understand how plants sense changes in their environment through changes in light or circadian rhythms, how cellular activity is regulated via intracellular signaling mechanisms, and how wood is formed in forest trees.
These diverse research programs provide students with the opportunity to undertake challenging research projects and to learn and utilize the full range of advanced modern research methodologies.
Read more about research in the Department of Plant Physiology.
Genetic variation in spruce does not differ significantly between cultivated and old forest in Västerbotten.