About the Faculty

Doctor of Biology, Professor

Rinat Ibragimov

 

The Faculty of Biology is one of the oldest Bashkir State University faculties. 1921 should be regarded as the starting point for professional training, when the Faculty of Natural Science of the Institute for Public Education admitted its first students. Note that at that moment the Institute of Public Education was the only higher education establishment in the Republic. Later on, in 1929, it was transformed into State Pedagogical Institute. The Faculty of Biology became an independent academic and scientific unit in 1957, when K.A. Timiryazev Bashkir State Pedagogical Institute was transformed into Bashkir State University.

 

At present the BashSu Faculty of Biology is one of the leading Russian Federation academic and scientific centres in the field of biology. Its professional and teaching staff trains highly qualified personnel for scientific and production enterprises specializing in biology, medicine and agriculture. This personnel is in demand in state administration and control bodies (State Service for Sanitary and Epidemiologic Inspection, State Committee for Ecology and Rational Use of Natural Resources, other state and public nature-preserving organisations), as well as in expert laboratories of law-enforcing bodies.

 

Currently 7 departments are engaged in educational and scientific activities at the Faculty.

 

The Faculty of Biology runs a zoological museum, a phytodesign and landscape gardening laboratory with a greenhouse, and a vivarium.

 

At the moment the Faculty of Biology employs leading specialists in various fields of biological science. Our scientists are renowned authorities, and their research findings are well-known in Russia and abroad. Scientific schools in various areas of biology have been formed and work under their guidance. Thus, Honoured Scientist of the Russian Federation, Professor B.M. Mirkin is the founder of a widely known scientific school of geobotany and ecology. At present Russian school children and university students study ecology using textbooks written by B.M. Mirkin and his colleagues. Honoured Scientist of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Professor R.G. Minibayev is the founder of the algological school in the Republic. Honoured Scientist of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Professor M.G. Bayanov is a recognized authority in the field of zoology.

 

The Faculty has a Dissertation Council for Defence of Doctoral and Candidate’s Dissertations D 212.013.11 in specialization areas: 03.02.01 – Botany, 03.01.05 – Plant Physiology and Biochemistry.

 

Graduates of the Faculty of Biology are employed by different scientific and production establishments and enterprises, by state nature-preserving structures and specialised laboratories of the Ministry of Public Health, Internal Affairs, Agriculture, Food and Manufacturing Industries. They also work as teachers in educational establishments. Biologists and ecologists are in professional demand in small and medium-sized businesses engaged in floriculture, fish breeding and phytodesign, agribusiness, etc.

 

Academic Work

Training at the Faculty of Biology involves mastering not only general humanist and natural-science subjects, but also a number of general professional and special disciplines. The natural-science cycle consists of the main biological disciplines (Botany of Lower and Higher Plants, Invertebrate and Vertebrate Zoology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Human and Animal Anatomy and Physiology, Plant Physiology, Biophysics, Immunology, Ecology, etc.), chemical disciplines (general, inorganic, organic, physical colloid chemistry, etc.), Mathematics, Physics.

 

Besides, the syllabus includes humanist disciplines, such as Philosophy, History, Political Science, Ethics, Culturology, Introduction to Law, Psychology. In their third year of study students choose one of the specialization areas in biology and study their majors at the corresponding departments. Specialization area suggests more profound studying of a certain range of problems, which is achieved through completing extra theoretical and practical courses in the chosen field of knowledge. Thus, during special practical training sessions students master a number of basic methods and practical skills required for their future activity. Of great importance for preparing biology specialists is practical work training, during which students master their skills of application of scientific methods and carry out experimental field and laboratory research. This research is done in scientific centres in Ufa and other cities and towns of the Republic. If necessary, students may be sent to have their practical training in other educational establishments and research institutes of the Russian Federation. Each student of the Faculty of Biology writes a graduation paper based on the results of independent experimental work and defends it before the State Examining Board upon completing the fifth (full-time students) or the sixth (students of mixed form of tuition) year of study. Graduation papers are works of science, the defence of which enables graduates to receive their qualifications. Without a completed graduation paper and its defence, qualifications are not given, and a diploma in higher biological education is not issued. The Faculty of Biology runs postgraduate courses, which means that each of the six Departments is entitled to have postgraduates. Under the Faculty there is a specialised Council for Defence of Doctoral and Candidate’s Dissertations in Botany, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry. Besides, the Institute for Biochemistry and Genetics of the Ufa Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences has Councils for Defence of Doctoral Dissertations in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Genetics; the Institute for Biology of the Ufa Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences — in Ecology and Biotechnology. According to statistical data, 10-15 Faculty graduates start postgraduate courses each year. Many alumni of the Faculty of Biology choose teaching career. They teach biological disciplines in schools and colleges in Ufa and the Republic of Bashkortostan, as well as in pedagogical, agrarian and medical universities.

 

Major research areas:

Research of mechanisms of forming plant resistance towards hostile environment;

Ecological foundations of preservation and rational use of biological diversity;

Biodiversity of natural and agricultural ecosystems;

Fauna structure and dynamics on the South Ural territory;

Zooplankton of water ecosystems on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan;

Fish fauna of small South Ural watercourses;

Bioindication of environmental state;

Studying hydrobiocoenoses of South Ural lakes;

Algae of Anthropogenically Affected Soils;

Bioindication and monitoring of state of lakes of various types in the Republic of Bashkortostan;

State of South Ural drug plant resources;

Anthropogenic changes to the plant component of ecosystems and their monitoring in terms of plant diversity;

Morphological and physiological aspects of blood cell functioning under normal, pathological and stressful conditions;

Structural-functional organization of the brain under normal and pathological conditions;

Studying the effect of salinization on plant growth and water exchange;

Molecular-genetic mechanisms of human organism functioning under normal and pathological conditions.

 

The Faculty of Biology trains students:

in specialisation area 020201 — Biology, majors:

             - Botany;

             - Zoology;

             - Human and Animal Physiology;

             - Plant Physiology;

             - Biochemistry;

             - Molecular Biology;

             - Ecology.

Term of full-time tuition — 5 years; term of mixed-type tuition — 6 years.

in specialization area 020801 — Ecology, major:

             -General Ecology

Term of full-time tuition — 5 years; term of mixed-type tuition — 6 years.

 

The Faculty also trains Bachelors (4 years of study) and Masters (6 years) in area 020200 — Biology on a full-time basis.