The Museum's research is organized into six interdisciplinary themes which reflect where our scientific strengths can most effectively contribute to tackling current issues of concern to the science community and to other groups in society.
Our extensive collections of over 68 million natural history specimens are an essential research facility for much of this work. The management and development of these collections are the focus of the Museum-wide Curation Programme.
The six research themes and their aims are:
To discover and investigate the broad patterns of biodiversity and evolution, as a foundation for comparative biology and its uses.
To make known the diversity of the natural world through description and naming of animals and plants, with particular emphasis on those from threatened habitats.
To record and explain the taxonomy, molecular diversity, distribution and ecology of various organisms detrimental to human and animal health.
To assess the impact of mineralogical, geochemical and human disturbances on environmental quality.
Earth Materials, History and Processes
To study the properties and relationships of minerals, meteorites, rocks and fossils and so further our understanding of the origin and history of the Earth.
Ecological Patterns and Processes
To investigate the past and present distributions of organisms and the processes by which these ecological patterns are generated, thereby providing a sound scientific basis for the conservation and management of biological diversity.
Within the themes, our research is managed in programmes which each focus on a coherent set of scientific questions.
