The Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology (MEME) is a two-year research oriented master programme for talented and motivated students who are interested in understanding evolution in all its facets. This multidisciplinary programme will address the driving forces of evolution at all levels of organismal organisation (from cells and individuals to populations and ecosystems), and it will allow students to study all kinds of organisms (microorganisms, plants, animals) in a diversity of habitats (marine as well as terrestrial). As an Erasmus Mundus master, MEME is largely funded by the European Union.
The focus of the MEME programme is not only on how evolution shaped life on our planet in the past, but also on how understanding the principles underlying evolution can provide new insights and help to cope with present-day challenges in a variety of fields, including ecology, epidemiology, physiology, immunology, genetics/genomics, bioinformatics, economics and the social sciences. The MEME programme will have a broad focus contentswise, as it aims to educate students with respect to all facets of evolution.
MEME students get a personal mentor, they are offered challenging multidisciplinary courses at the frontline of scientific research, they closely interact with leading researchers and can make use of modern, state-of-the-art techniques and facilities, and they are embedded in a high-quality international network. Accordingly, MEME will provide its students with an optimal preparation for a subsequent PhD study or for other career options in the broad variety of fields where evolutionary thinking is an asset.
Participating Universities
Four European universities (University of Groningen, Netherlands; Uppsala University, Sweden; Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany; University of Montpellier 2, France) have joined forces with Harvard University (USA) as an associated partner. MEME offers students the opportunity to compose an individual study programme in evolutionary biology by combining elements from the complementary programmes that are already established at the participating universities. Students spend at least a semester at several partner universities, and they will be awarded double degrees for this. For more information about the participating universities, see:
- University of Groningen (RUG)
- Uppsala University (UU)
- Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU)
- University of Montpellier 2 (UM2)
- Harvard University
For a complete overview of the MEME programme, download the MEME information guide.
