News and Events
CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2013 !!!
SENIORS RECEPTION and Awards for Biology, ESBI, Neuroscience, and MBB majors:
Friday, May 24 at 2:00pm
Great Hall and Discovery Court
Congratulations to Prof. Mark Spritzer and his lab*
on their new publication in the journal Hormones and Behavior: "Testosterone influences spatial strategy preferences among adult male rats." *Co-authors Chris Batson and Ben Wagner graduate this spring!
From Prof. Ward's lab:
Congratulations to Sky Feuer (MBBC '09.5), co-first author on a new paper soon to be published in the journal Genetics. Midd grads Laurie Griffin (MBBC 2007.5) and Clair Bovet (MBBC 2012) were also important contributors to the work. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Congratulations to Anne Runkel '11 (BIOL) who has been awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship !!!
Caitlin Hicks getting her PhD 2012, University of Florida, Gainesville. Next stop: a post doc at the Dept of Energy Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, California
Moria Robinson '12 and E.O. Wilson, at the ATBI Conference in Tennessee, April 2012.
The goals of the Biology department are to provide students opportunities to explore the diversity of life within the tradition of a liberal arts education.
To accomplish our first goal we require course work that spans the entire field of biology, as well as course work that provides depth in at least one sub-discipline. Students who choose to major or minor in biology complete a common core program which includes two introductory courses that have been designed to explore four critical fields in modern biology: ecology, evolution, genetics, and cellular biology. Course work beyond the introductory level provides depth by including taxon-based organismal courses, research methods courses, and a wide variety of upper-level courses that span the field of biology. We offer courses from across the breadth of the field each semester so that students can customize their major to achieve their own educational goals while providing preparation necessary to be successful in their future career.
While our courses' subject matter covers the diversity of the field of biology it maintains a common goal that places it within the tradition of the liberal arts education. Our courses emphasize both written and oral communication and all upper-level courses require independent study. Each course emphasizes active learning rather than rote memorization by providing problems that require critical thinking in order to solve them. Connections are made at every opportunity between biological knowledge and other disciplines. As part of this effort faculty in the Biology Department are active participants in the interdisciplinary Environmental Science, Neuroscience Program, and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry programs.