Marine Biology

• Wadden Sea nearby: unique in the world (on UNESCO World Heritage list)

• Focus on Biology! Research projects on the level of cells, organisms, populations and communities in seas and oceans

• In cooperation with the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)

• Throughout the year opportunities to start your individual programme

• Our faculty is the home of the 2016 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry, Ben Feringa, and the Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Frits Zernike

2-year programme; credits per year: 60 ECTS.

For the complete curriculum, please see: http://www.rug.nl/ocasys/fse/vak/showpos?opleiding=4871

We offer students a series of introductory and specialised courses in Marine sciences (20-30 ECTS).

The courses will facilitate students from various backgrounds to successfully obtain a degree in Marine Biology. These courses will cover a large range of topics including chemical, physical and biological oceanography, marine conservation, marine community ecology, applied marine biology and marine evolution. Courses will be taught by lecturers from various research institutes, as well as external experts (mainly NIOZ). After a series of compulsory and facultative courses, the students will start their first research project.

Exchange: All our science and engineering programmes offer study abroad possibilities at a number of partner institutions, often as a second research project. Our partners include top-100 universities in Europe (for example in Germany, UK, and Sweden) and in the USA, China, South-East Asia, and South America.

• About one third of the graduates continue in academic research with the pursuit of their PhD degree in The Netherlands or abroad.
• About one third of the graduates continue in various kinds of research and management related to fisheries and coastal zone management.
• About one third of the graduates work in the public sector, for example in journalism, teaching or communication.

During your master, you will conduct two research projects supervised by experienced staff in the relevant research field. The first project is placed at UG or NIOZ. The second research project can be undertaken anywhere in the world or be an internship at a governmental organization, company or NGO (business and policy track). A UG staff member will serve as the internal supervisor to ensure the project meets UG's academic standards..

There is a wide variety of research topics to choose from for your first UG/NIOZ-based research project (~40 ECTs). Apart from the research conducted by permanent UG staff (see Marine Biology Master main page) there are also opportunities at NIOZ. NIOZ has two centers; on Texel (open ocean, North Sea, Wadden Sea research) and in Yerseke (estuarine research). The research opportunities with NIOZ are described in the following link: https://www.nioz.nl/en/education/internships. Projects at NIOZ are mostly supervised by senior staff who hold a Honorary Professorship, or who have a teaching contract with UG. Involved staff include (with their own scientific field in parentheses):

• Prof. dr. Klaas. R. Timmermans (Ecophysiology of seaweeds)
• Prof. dr. J. van de Koppel (Spatial complexity in ecosystems)
• Prof. dr. David Thieltges (Ecological role of parasites in marine ecosystems).
• Prof. dr. Bert W. Hoeksema (UG Honorary Professor) chairs the Tropical Marine Biodiversity Group at Naturalis in Leiden. He can accommodate second master projects in this research field.