Faculty and Student Research
Research in the School of Biology and Ecology
Research opportunities for undergraduates
Undergraduate students in their third and fourth years of study are encouraged to try their hand in research in biology and ecology. A listing of opportunities for undergraduate research is posted separately.
Research specializations of the Biology and Ecology Faculty
With its diverse faculty assembled from units traditionally subdivided into botanists, entomologists, and zoologists, the Biology and Ecology faculty covers a broad spectrum of fields of study:
- Animal Behavior and Behavioral Ecology
- how animals behave and interact with each other and with their environment
- Applied Biology
- practical application of biological research to agricultural and ecological problems, toxicology
- Botany, Plant Biology, Mycology
- basic research on plants and fungi on land and in the sea
- Developmental and Cell Biology
- the structure and function of cells and tissues and their embryonic development
- Ecology, Environmental Biology, and Paleoecology
- how animals and plants interact with their environment; long-term dynamics of climate
- Entomology
- insects, their ecology, effects on other organisms, and classification
- Fisheries Biology
- fish and their evolution and ecology
- Freshwater Biology
- the ecology of lakes, streams, and wetlands and their management
- Genetics and Molecular Biology
- how genes control organisms and can be used in understanding evolutionary relationships
- Plant Pathology
- the diseases of plants and study of the organisms that affect plants
- Physiology and Physiological Ecology
- how cells and organs function and their roles in ecological interactions
- Systematics and Evolution
- how animals and plants have evolved and how their evolutionary relationships apply to classification
