Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was established in 1969 with the aim to bring development to the Negev, a desert area comprising more than sixty percent of the country. The University was inspired by the vision of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, who believed that the future of the country lay in this region.
Research in the Department of Life Sciences addresses a wide range of biological questions from atomic to community levels, relying on the tools of modern biology. Current areas of research in the department include: Bioinformatics, Genetics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Animal Physiology, Plant Physiology and Ecology.
Research is conducted in state-of-the-art laboratories in the Zoltan Toman building, which also houses the departmental microscopy, protein crystallography, and sequencing units.
The Department of Life Sciences offers programs towards B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees.