History

The School of Physical and Biological Sciences is as old as Maseno University, which started as a constituent college of Moi University in 1990. It was started as Faculty of Science to offer Bachelor of Science General degree.  The pioneer class of 42 students was admitted from the second 8-4-4 class who sat their KCSE exams in 1990. The Founding Dean was Professor Ochong’ Okelo. Since then the school has had nine deans. The initial departments that formed the faculty were; Department of Botany, Department of Chemistry, Department of Physics, Department of Zoology and Department of Mathematics. With time the faculty expanded in degree programmes and departments. The degree programmes include BSc Home Science and Technology (Department of Home Science), BSc Horticulture (Department of Botany/Horticulture), BSc Environmental Studies (Department of Environmental Studies), BSc Computer Science and Engineering and BSc Computer Science and Technology (Department of Computer Science) and BSc Biomedical Sciences (Department of Zoology). It’s worth noting that the Computer Center was established under the Faculty of Science as an academic and a technical component of the university college in charge of ICT services. The Department of Home Science later became part of the School of Family, Consumer Sciences and Technology (SOFCONSTEC) was later disbanded and Department of Eco-tourism Hotel and Institution Management (ECOHIM) was transferred to Faculty of Science. University expansion necessitated creation of new faculties and schools, which were initially part of Faculty of Science. Thus, Department of Horticulture became part of the newly created Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Computer Science became Faculty of Computer Science, Department of Mathematics became Faculty of mathematics and Applied Statistics, Department of Environmental Studies became School of Environment and Earth Sciences while the Biomedical Science programme was transferred to the School of Public Health and Community Development. In 2013, a senate resolution led to the renaming of all Faculties as schools, Faculty of Science was renamed School of Physical and Biological Sciences. The transfer of degree programmes to offshoot faculties/schools left the school with only two programmes, BSc Basic Sciences (Basic Science with IT and BSc ECOHIM with IT. The school, has since expanded by developing and launching other programmes; namely; BSc in Industrial Chemistry With IT, BSc in Analytical Chemistry With IT, BSc in Physics with IT, BSc in Botany with IT and BSc in Ethnobotany and Medicinal Plant Science With IT. In 2019, the Department of ECOHIM was transferred to the School of Business and Economics.