The Nees-Institute of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences carries out research in and teaches about all areas of organismic botany. There is an emphasis on the evolution and systematics of land plants, phytogeography and ecology. The field of applied botany is covered in pollination biology, useful plants, analyses of global change, and technical applications such as bionics of biological surfaces and the development of methods in molecular biology and bioinformatics for the rapid assessment and monitoring of organisms via genetic barcoding. Latin America is one geographical research focus of the Nees-Institute. The Nees-Institute is linked to the Botanical Gardens of Bonn University via Professor Weigend as director of the gardens. Teaching at the institute includes course in Bachelor of Biology, Masters in Organismic Biology, Evolutionary Biology and Palaeobiology (OEP-Biology) and Plant Sciences, and also in the gracuate studies programme "Bionic - interactions at biological surfaces".