STUDYING BIOLOGY AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Table of Contents
GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES
THE FIELD OF BIOLOGY
Biology in the 1990s is among the most diverse and exciting of the sciences. In its focus on evolution, biology spans the entire history of life on earth; in its focus on ecology, it covers the entire surface of the earth. Biology deals with the structure of molecules essential for life, with the development and physiology of the brain, and with the genetic structure of natural populations of organisms. Recent discoveries are enabling biologists to understand life at the molecular level. These findings promise to unleash knowledge that will affect health, nutrition, and the environment in beneficial ways.
THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
The Department of Biology has received national recognition for the contributions of its faculty in genetics, neuroscience, development, population biology, plant biology, and other areas of specialization. The Biology Department web site http://www.nslc.wustl.edu/handbook/handbook.html contains information about our Department. Work being done in the Department has broad implications for the treatment of disease and genetic anomalies, the preservation of endangered species, the development of food crops, and many other global problems centered in the life sciences.
The Biology Department has a distinguished history, highlighted by the 1986 Nobel Prize awarded to two former members of the department, Rita Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen, for their discovery at Washington University of the Nerve Growth Factor. Today, the Department includes two professors and an emeritus professor who are members of the National Academy of Sciences and many others who have gained international distinction for their research.
The Biology Department occupies six large buildings. The web site http://www.nslc.wustl.edu/Biomajors/tour/tour.html contains a map and describes the laboratories in these buildings. Rebstock Hall, the original home of the department, is flanked to the east by the Monsanto Building and the McDonnell Hall, and to the west by the Busch Building, the Life Sciences Building, and the Jeanette Goldfarb Plant Growth Facility. The Goldfarb Facility includes greenhouse rooms, growth chambers, and a plant tissue culture facility. The excellent Biology Library is located in the Life Sciences Building. Computers in individual laboratories are linked to the internet in the Biology Department Computer Facility. The Life Sciences Building also houses the Natural Sciences Learning Center with an array of computers for students in undergraduate Biology courses. The home page of the Natural Sciences Learning Center (http://www.nslc.wustl.edu/) contains additional information about the Department of Biology. The Departmental Microscope Facility includes a transmission and a scanning electron microscope, a Zeiss Axiomat for phase and fluorescence microscopy, and a computer-controlled optical sectioning microscope.
Of the Arts and Sciences departments at Washington University, the Department of Biology has the largest number of faculty members and the greatest external grant support for its research. There are currently over 25 tenured and tenure-track professors in the Department. The Department receives more than $7.3 million per year for the support of research projects. The Department of Biology has the second largest number of undergraduate Arts and Sciences majors; only the Department of Psychology has more majors. The coordination of graduate education in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences is a joint effort of the Biology Department and the preclinical departments in the School of Medicine.
UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM
The Department of Biology challenges students to master the basics underlying all biological phenomena. It does so though a core curriculum comprised of three basic courses that introduce molecular and cellular biology, physiology, genetics, ecology, and evolution. These core courses are generally taken during the freshman and sophomore years. Subsequently, students are encouraged to focus on a subspecialty. Advanced courses are offered in such areas as Molecular Mechanisms in Development, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology, Cell Nucleus, Biochemistry, Vertebrate Structure, Vertebrate Development, Endocrinology, Human Physiology, Nervous System, Neuroethology, Comparative Vertebrate Physiology, Evolution, Population Genetics, Macroevolution, Molecular Evolution, Ecology, Plant Biology and Genetic Engineering, Plant Evolution and Diversity, Plant Form and Function, Medical Plants, and Biochemistry of Plants. Laboratory courses are offered in Neurophysiology, DNA Manipulation, and Biochemistry. The web site https://acadinfo.wustl.edu/ contains an electronic list of Biology courses--select course listings, go to Arts and Sciences, and look up the L41 Biology and Biomedical Sciences in each semester.
Students with special interests in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
may elect either a Biology Major or a Special Major in Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology. This Special Major is open to those students who attain
a B+ or better in their introductory Biology and Chemistry courses. See
the web site http://www.nslc.wustl.edu/Biomajors/biochem.html
for additional information.
INDEPENDENT STUDY
Students are encouraged to participate in research projects conducted by more than 300 professors in the Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS) with laboratories in the Biology Department on the Main Hilltop Campus and in the Medical School. The web site http://dbbs.wustl.edu/ includes the Faculty Research list that contains the research interests of Division faculty. The Medical School is connected with the Main Hilltop Campus by a free shuttle. Students who graduate with Honors in Biology describe the results of their independent research in an Honors Thesis submitted in March of their senior year.
Several research facilities are available to students with independent research interests in addition to those in the Department of Biology and the Medical School. The Missouri Botanical Garden, founded in 1859, is the oldest botanical garden in the United States, and its program of botanical research is one of the most active in the world. The Director of the Garden, Peter Raven, is a Professor in the Biology Department, and several members of his research staff are adjunct faculty members. The facilities of the nearby St. Louis Zoo have also served as a site for independent research projects. An exciting new research facility is the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center that will open nearby on the campus of the Monsanto Corporation in the year 2000. The Plant Science Center is the result of a collaboration among Washington University, Monsanto Corporation, Missouri Botanical Garden, University of Missouri, and University of Illinois.
GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES
A high percentage of undergraduate biology majors go on to earn advanced degrees, either in medicine or in research fields. The Career Opportunies section at http://www.nslc.wustl.edu/handbook/handbook.html in the Biology Department Handbook web site contains further information. Some of our recent graduates elect to earn two advanced degrees in a combined degree program; they obtain their M.D. and Ph.D. by enrolling in a Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at a research-oriented medical school. Many MSTP students receive a full-tuition fellowship as well as a stipend to cover living expenses for the duration of their combined degree program.
Link to WU Prospective Undergraduate Biology Majors
- Written information provided by Paul S.G. Stein Ph.D.
- WWW site: http://biosgi.wustl.edu/faculty/stein.html
- email: stein@biodec.wustl.edu
- Web Pages created by David Heyse at the Natural Science Learning Center, Washington University.
- WWW site:http://www.nslc.wustl.edu
- Updated: November 1998
- URL: http://www.nslc.wustl.edu/biomajors/studyingbio.html