The Biology Department offers a balanced curriculum. Students study life at all levels - from molecules to cells, from microorganisms to plants and animals, and from individuals to populations. With the help of faculty advisors, students choose courses that fulfill both the degree requirements and their individual goals. The biology curriculum comprises slightly more than twenty-five percent of the course work required for graduation.
Biology majors begin with a five quarter sequence of required biology courses two of them with laboratories. The first three quarters focus on ecology,evolution physiology & genetics. The last two quarters students have "hands on" opportunity to learn about these subjects in a laboratory environment. After completing the core courses, students choose seven or more upper-division courses from a long list of electives.
Courses include strong writing components, experiments with modern equipment, and the critical analysis of data and scientific literature. Laboratory sections enroll twenty-four or fewer students, promoting close interactions between students and their professors. Assignments often require students to present their findings utilizing styles of professional scientific meetings or journals. Such activities prepare students for their future careers by developing the critical thinking and language skills needed by scientists.
Submissions from 2006
The Evolution of Organismal Complexity in Angiosperms as Measured by the Information Content of Taxonomic Descriptions, J. Gordon Burleigh, Justen B. Whittall, and Michael J. Sanderson
Relating the Cost of Spinning Silk to the Tendency to Share It for Three Embiids with Different Lifestyles (Order Embiidina: Clothodidae, Notoligotomidae, and Australembiidae), Janice Edgerly-Rooks, Shailesh Shenoy, and Vanessa Werner
A Survey of Nuclear Ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer Substitution Rates Across Angiosperms: an Approximate Molecular Clock with Life History Effects, Kathleen M. Kay, Justen B. Whittall, and Scott A. Hodges
Bacterial Cell Biology: Managing Magnetosomes, Craig Stephens
Convergence, Constraint and the Role of Gene Expression During Adaptive Radiation: Floral Anthocyanins in Aquilegia, Justen B. Whittall, Claudia Voelckel, Daniel J. Kliebenstein, and Scott A. Hodges
Submissions from 2005
Adaptation to thermal stress in licheneating webspinners (Embioptera): habitat choice, domicile construction, and the potential role of heat shock proteins, Janice Edgerly-Rooks, Archana Tadimalla, and E. P. Dahlhoff
Submissions from 2004
Lichens, Sun, and Fire: A Search for an Embiid-Environment Connection in Australia (Order Embiidina: Australembiidae and Notoligotomidae), Janice Edgerly-Rooks and Edward Rooks
Transcriptional Profiling of Caulobacter crescentus during Growth on Complex and Minimal Media, Craig Stephens, Alison K. Hottes, Maliwan Meewan, Desiree Yang, Naomi Arana, Pedro Romero, and Harley H. McAdams.
Submissions from 2003
The evolution of warning signals as reliable indicators of prey defense, Thomas N. Sherratt and Christopher D. Beatty
Microbial Genomics: Tropical Treasure?, Craig Stephens
Submissions from 2002
Silk spinning behavior and domicile construction in webspinners, Janice Edgerly-Rooks, J. A. Davilla, and N. Schoenfeld
Use of the Caulobacter crescentus Genome Sequence To Develop a Method for Systematic Genetic Mapping, Craig Stephens, Lisandra West, and Desiree Yang
Submissions from 1999
Course-based campus environmental research projects, Janice Edgerly-Rooks, Amy Shachter, and Wynn Calder
Submissions from 1998
A cell cycle-regulated adenine DNA methyltransferase from Caulobacter crescentus processively methylates GANTC sites on hemimethylated DNA, Craig Stephens, Anthony J. Berdis, Irene Lee, James K. Coward, Rachel Wright, Lucy Shapiro, and Stephen J. Benkovic
Submissions from 1997
Life Beneath Silk Walls: A Review of the Primitively Social Embiidina, Janice Edgerly-Rooks
Identification of the fliI and fliJ Components of the Caulobacter Flagellar Type III Protein Secretion System, Craig Stephens, Chris Mohr, Charles Boyd, Janine Maddock, James Gober, and Lucy Shapiro
The CcrM DNA Methyltransferase Is Widespread in the Alpha Subdivision of Proteobacteria, and Its Essential Functions Are Conserved in Rhizobium meliloti and Caulobacter crescentus, Craig Stephens, Rachel Wright, and Lucy Shapiro
Submissions from 1996
A cell cycle-regulated bacterial DNA methyltransferase is essential for viability, Craig Stephens, Ann Reisenaur, Rachel Wright, and Lucy Shapiro
Caulobacter Lon protease has a critical role in cell-cvcle cbntrol of DNA I methylation, Craig Stephens, Rachel Wright, Gary Zweiger, Lucy Shapiro, and M.R.K. Alley
Coordinate Cell Cycle Control of a Caulobacter DNA Methyltransferase and the Flagellar Genetic Hierarchy, Craig Stephens, Gary Zweiger, and Lucy Shapiro
Submissions from 1994
Is group living an antipredator defense in a facultatively communal webspinner?, Janice Edgerly-Rooks
Submissions from 1992
Two mechanisms for growth inhibition by elevated transport of sugar phosphates in Escherichia coli, Robert J. Kadner, G. Patrick Murphy, and Craig Stephens
Essential cysteines in 3-deoxy-d-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate synthase from Escherichia coli., Craig Stephens and Ronald Bauerle
Submissions from 1991
Analysis of the metal requirement of 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate synthase from Escherichia coli., Craig Stephens and Ronald Bauerle
Submissions from 1988
Maternal behaviour of a webspinner (Order Embiidina): mother–nymph associations, Janice Edgerly-Rooks
