The Master’s program in Biology and Agrosciences at Montpellier offers a wide range of courses in the life sciences as applied to the fields of agronomy and agrosciences, ranging from plant biology, plant interactions with the abiotic and biotic environment, and plant experimentation, and the biology of microorganism-host interactions, to biotechnology and process engineering for the food and non-food processing of agricultural resources. Faculty members and researchers in the Biology-Agrosciences research field—which is particularly strong in Montpellier—are deeply involved in the academic oversight, organization, and instruction of this Master’s program, one of whose defining features is its strong research focus.
The Master’s program in Biology and Agrosciences is jointly accredited by the University of Montpellier and the Institut Agro de Montpellier. Biologists who complete this Master’s program will also be able, at the intersection of research and development, to acquire either the skills needed to become a top-level researcher or those of a Master’s-level engineer capable of quickly adapting to the industrial world.
The scientific fields covered by the Master’s in Biology and Agrosciences include plant sciences, microbiology, environmental sciences, bioengineering, and bioprocesses, combining a wide range of skills—from biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, to ecophysiology and microbial ecology, through physiology and integrative biology, and extending to biotechnology and process engineering. This Master’s program builds on the research strengths of the Montpellier campus:
- one of the two major centers, along with the Île-de-France region, where the bulk of research in plant science is concentrated,
- a continuum of laboratories working in fields ranging from plant biology to the study of interactions between microorganisms and their hosts—whether plants or animals—as evidenced by the emergence of a Microorganism-Host Interactions network,
- a strong food and process engineering division that includes research teams working in the areas of product microbiological quality, food safety, biological traceability, and process engineering.
Bringing together research capabilities in these three fields at a single location opens up exceptional opportunities to pursue a master’s degree grounded in scientific research.
The Master’s in Biology and Agrosciences trains professionals with expertise in research, diagnosis, intervention, and education in the fields of plant sciences, microbiology, biotechnology, and bioprocesses in the broadest sense, including:
- plant biology: functional plant biology at various levels of analysis, functional genomics, plant adaptation to the environment, ecophysiology, plant-microorganism interactions, translational biology focused on tropical plants of interest, plant biotechnology;
- functional microbiology and microbial ecology: interactions between microorganisms and their hosts (humans, animals, plants); control and management of communicable diseases—whether emerging or not—of environmental, foodborne, vector-borne, animal, or plant origin; the place and role of microorganisms in natural and anthropogenic environments;
- biotechnology and nanobiotechnology: diagnostic and detection tools for traceability (medical, agricultural, food, etc.);
- Food and Environmental Bioengineering: food science, food processing and preservation, process engineering to support business and competitiveness, and qualitative and quantitative management of agricultural resources.
Since September 2022, the Master’s in Biology and Agrosciences has also offered a track titled“Plant and Microbiological Sciences for the Agro-environment”(short title: “Plants and Microbes”) as part of the IDIL program, which is a program even more focused on supervised individual research, with instruction in English and an emphasis on interdisciplinarity.
THE COURSES
