Brief history of the Department

The establishment of the Faculty of Science dates back to the University Development Plan for the years 1986-1990, which gave the then University of Ancona, the Degree Course in Biological Sciences with the line of study in Marine and Oceanography Biology that is activated during 1991-1992 by a technical regulating committee. Since the first year the degree course has an unexpected number of entries that occurs again in subsequent years. In 1993 the minimum number of teachers required by law is reached and the Faculty Council is constituted and chaired by Prof. Ettore Olmo. Given the number of entries, the activation of a second address in Biotechnology is proposed. In July 1996 the first session of the degree is of great satisfaction for all teachers of the Faculty for 16 students graduate well under way and voting brilliant.

In 2000-2001 the new structure of courses of study that involves two levels of college graduation is activated. Our Faculty starts up a three year degree in Biological Sciences and three two-year specialist degrees in Marine Biology, Industrial Biology and Biomethodologies. In the academic year 2002-2003 a degree course in Techniques of Environmental Control and Civil Protection is activated at the site of Falconara Marittima, which in 2007-2008 will move to Ancona. In 2004-2005 we had the first graduates in the Techniques of Environmental Control and Civil Protection and the first postgraduates of the class of Biology. In 2006-2007 a new specialist degree in environmental science class is activated. It was called Environmental Sustainability and Civil Protection and we had the first postgraduate in 2007-2008. In the same year the two specialist degrees in Industrial Biology and in Biomethodologies are replaced by a single degree in Applied Biology.

The Faculty of Science has achieved great success over the years rating in 2003 and 2005 the first place in CENSIS classification, the third in 2009 and again the third in the decade 2001-2010.

During the years we also qualified in international activities which saw among others the activation of a Master's Degree in Marine Biology in collaboration with the University "Sam Ratulangi" of Manado (Indonesia).

The Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (DiSVA) was established in 2011 by merging a number of laboratories involved in a wide spectrum of fundamental and applied research topics. The department is a center of excellence of the Università Politecnica delle Marche and includes more than 100 scientists and technicians that conduct research in areas such as analytical and organic chemistry, biophysics, cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics, microbiology and biotechnology, viral, prokaryotic, fungal, algal, plant and animal systematics, physiology and reproduction, marine biology, ecology, eco-toxicology, oceanography, Earth sciences, risk reduction and civil protection. In the last five years, scientists from DiSVA publish approximately 200 ISI papers (Web of Science) per year, on average cited more than 2500 times per year. These scientists directly collaborate with numerous research centers and Large Scale facilities worldwide coordinating and carrying out several national and international research projects (including EU programs from FP5 to FP7). The DISVA participates in the National Antarctic Research Program and is involved in international expeditions to the Arctic and the world's oceans. DISVA is also a local unit of several research consortia (e.g. the Italian Consortium for Marine Science - CoNISMa, the Italian Consortium for Physics of Matter - CNISM, and the High Tech Recycling Center - HTR), and hosts the headquarters of the Italian Association of Oceanology and Limnology (AIOL), the Italian Society of Ecology (SITE), the Italian Society of Neutron Spectroscopy (SISN) and the Italian Zoological Union (UZI). It also hosts the editorial office of several international scientific journals (e.g. Chemistry and Ecology, Advances in Oceanography and Limnology, Marine Environmental Research, TheScientificWorldJournal: Biophysics). Three academic spin-off companies (Oceans Soc.Coop, Ecotechsystems srl) have been initiated by DiSVA's scientists and graduate students.