The Department of Biological Sciences

Facilities

We are housed in a complex of three interconnected buildings on the West side of the campus, which we share with the Department of Chemistry and Physical Sciences and the Department of Nutrition. Labs are well-equipped and even the most expensive equipment (e.g., our automated DNA sequencer) is used regularly by students.

The Freshman Biology Lab in Pool Science 118 is well-equipped for the wide array of projects carried out by students in Principles of Biology.
The Biodiversity and Conservation Biology Lab in Pool Science 106 is used for a variety of courses, including Conservation Biology, Botany and Evolution. It is home to a variety of organisms.
Our confocal microscope uses lasers to visualize cells and tissues. It "optically slices" samples and use them to produce 3-dimensional images. It can also be used to visualize biological activity in living cells.
The W.M. Keck Bioinformatics Lab in Miller 22 houses several computers, with specialized software for GIS/GPS and molecular sequence analysis.