Plant Conservation MSc

A week-long Seed Banking course is delivered by SCD staff as part of the one-year MSc course in Plant Conservation run by the University of Sussex. The MSc. course includes a five month research project, supervised by SCD or Sussex staff. Both the Seed Banking course, held in January, and the supervised research project are available as stand alone options and credits gained may be used to towards an MSc degree at Sussex or other Universities.

Thomas Roach

Thomas Roach completed the MSc in 2005. He writes

"I have always wanted to stay within the discipline of conservation but enjoyed the excitement of research. This led me to the MSc in Plant Conservation at Sussex Uni. The year-long course included a week at the MSB, which was a real eye-opener into a novel ex situ strategy for conserving biodiversity. I saw the opportunity of combining my interests with work here, and was immediately drawn to the project. After this introduction, I was keen to integrate my MSc research project in Dactylorhiza orchid hybrids with the Seed Conservation Department, which they happily accommodated. However, as I soon learnt, orchid seed, being so small, is not the easiest to work with!

Germinating orchid seed

It is difficult to know what next to do when coming out of education, especially with the financial pressures many students now face. The quality of the labs and equipment, combined with the expertise and knowledge of the SCD team helped in making my decision to apply for the position I am now in (Thomas has just started a PhD at the MSB looking into seed ageing related to oxidative stress). This place is also unique in that it allows the public to see through into the labs, which I believe helps in opening up science. Seeds may well be a very specific area of research, and physiologically are not always the easiest subjects to work with, but the same research techniques apply to many other areas of science".