Biology

The Department of Biological Sciences has a strong tradition at the University of Idaho, with more than 300 students in the program pursuing either a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science in Biology. This top program offers competitive research opportunities and a team of well-respected faculty members who value research, but who also share a passion for teaching and advising students.

With a bachelor's degree in biology, you'll be prepared for a successful future in graduate school, in the business world, or in a government or state agency. Our alumni also have been very successful in gaining admission into medical, dental, physical therapy and other allied health programs.

As a biology major, you’ll gain a thorough understanding of natural history, anatomy, and physiology, and of molecular, cellular, developmental, and quantitative biology. You’ll learn how to ask the right questions, make observations, evaluate evidence and solve problems. Our courses focus on several fundamental concepts:

• An understanding and appreciation of the diversity of life on Earth
• A basic understanding of the principles and mechanisms of evolution
• An understanding of the basic principles and mechanisms that all living organisms rely upon
• An understanding of all  levels of biological organization, from the population and organism to the cellular and molecular

Prepare for Success

Biology students have a genuine curiosity to learn about the natural world, a diligent work ethic and an infatuation with studying problems and developing creative solutions. If this describes you, a biology degree could take you where you want to go in life. To set yourself up for success, it’s important that you take courses  in mathematics science, and chemistry. And, because you need to develop critical thinking skills, you should take some English classes, as well. These courses will give you the confidence and skills you’ll need to formulate, prepare and communicate logical and convincing scientific arguments.

Your First Year

During your first year, you’ll begin building your core foundation in science with an introduction to biology and chemistry, in addition to taking general university requirements, such as writing communications, history, humanities and mathematics. To help you through your transition into university life, you’ll be assigned a staff adviser who is committed to your success. A sample of first and second year biology classes include:

• Biol 115 – Cells and the Evolution of Life
• Biol 116 – Organisms and Environments
• Biol 310 – Genetics
• Biol 212 – Molecular and Cellular Biology

What You Can Do

With a bachelor's degree in biology, you may become a:

• Biologist
• High school biology or chemistry teacher
• Medical doctor
• Physical therapist
• Dentist
• Nurse
• Zoologist
• Academic professor/researcher 
• Pharmaceutical researcher 
• Pharmaceutical sales representative
• Forensic scientist
• Consultant
• Biotechnician

Opportunities

Many graduates with a bachelor's degree in biology will pursue a health-related profession. Nearly 80 percent of students who are admitted into medical, dental, and physical therapy schools have majored in a core science (especially biology, microbiology, psychology or chemistry).

Or, you could teach advanced biology or chemistry to high school students. A background in biology also prepares you to build a career at a college, museum, zoo or with a government agency, such as working for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife or the Environmental Protection Agency. You may also have a career as a consultant, in which you could use your scientific training, for example,  to manage environmental impact assessments for a civil engineering firm. Or, you could have a career with a biotechnology company, applying scientific principles to develop products or enhancements in agriculture, food science, or medicine.

Other alumni have exciting and rewarding careers in academia as university professors and researchers.

Current Research

The Department of Biological Sciences encourages undergraduate research and annually offers five undergraduate research awards, including the Curtis and Mary Sundquist Award and four departmental awards, to support these activities. Faculty research interests are grouped into three main focus areas:

• Ecology and evolution (animal behavior, genetics, microbial ecology, systematics)
• Neurobiology (retinal development and neurophysiology)
• Reproductive biology (development, endocrinology, fertility)

• Monika Ide, in the Miura lab, is studying how alveolar epithelial cells detect and respond to virus infection in the lung.

• Ryan Rounds, in the Fuerst lab, is studying the genetic regulation of adult neurogenesis and memory in mice.

• Josh Egan, in the Nagler lab, is studying the molecular basis for a fertility condition in female rainbow trout.

Hands-On Experience

As a biology student you’ll learn primarily in a traditional lecture and lab environment. You'll also have the opportunity to earn credit toward graduation through internships, practicums and other directed study activities ─ all with preapproval from your adviser.

Facilities

The University of Idaho features several top-rated research facilities, institutes and centers on the Moscow campus:

• Aquaculture Research Institute
• Center for Reproductive Biology
• Electron Microscopy Center
• Environmental Research Institute
• IBEST Core Facilities
• IBEST DNA Sequencing Facility
• University of Idaho Libraries

Faculty Involvement

While your entry level classes will tend to be large, with classes exceeding 100 students, your upper division courses will be much smaller, typically with class sizes between 10 and 30 students. We believe that smaller classes give you the opportunity to interact with your professors and your classmates in a more comfortable and inviting environment.

Onesmo Balemba, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
My research focuses on the pathophysiology of diseases that affect gastrointestinal (GI) functions. My aim is to gain a better understanding of neuromuscular and immune system host responses in diabetes, and infectious diarrhea, and therapeutic strategies for these conditions.
» View Onesmo Balemba's profile

Celeste Brown, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Dr. Celeste Brown has two research areas, how gene regulation changes in response to selection, and the evolution of disordered proteins. The link between these two disparate areas is that often proteins involved in gene regulation are disordered. The gene regulation studies involve laboratory-based research and the disordered protein studies involve bioinformatics approaches.
» View Celeste Brown's Profile

John A. Byers, Ph.D.
Professor
I am an animal behaviorist primarily interested in behavioral development, play, sexual selection and female mate choice. I am a member and Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society. I maintain a longitudinal study of a population of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) on the National Bison Range in western Montana. Projects now underway in this study, which has run since 1981, are measurement of costs and benefits of female mate choice and evaluation of the fitness consequences of inbreeding in the population.
» View John Byers' Profile

Joseph G. Cloud, Ph.D.
Professor
Projects in Dr. Cloud’s research program are primarily directed toward understanding germ cell development in salmonids and the establishment of a germplasm repository for threatened and endangered fish. Ongoing research projects in the lab include the cryopreservation and transplantation of salmonid gonads and the isolation, culture, and reestablishment of germinal stem cells. Additionally, sperm collected from numerous populations of Snake River chinook salmon and steelhead are cryopreserved and stored annually.
» View Joseph Cloud's Profile

Larry J. Forney, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Director of IBEST
The research done in Dr. Larry Forney’s laboratory centers on the diversity and distribution of prokaryotes. Both field and laboratory studies are done to explore the temporal and spatial patterns of community diversity, as well as factors that influence the dynamics of inter- and intra-species competition. In addition research is done to understand how spatial structure and the resulting environmental gradients influence the tempo and trajectory of adaptive radiations in bacterial species and the maintenance of diversity. Most of these studies are highly interdisciplinary in nature, and done in collaboration with mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, geologists, environmental engineers, physicians, and clinical scientists.
» View Larry Forney's profile

Elizabeth (Lee) Ann Fortunato, Ph.D.
Professor
Research interests: Understanding the mechanism behind the development of morbidity and mortality in infants congenitally infected with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)
» View Lee Fortunato's Profile

James A. Foster, Ph.D.
Professor
Dr. Foster’s current research is focused on characterizing evolutionarily permissible ecological structures in microbial ecosystems and on developing bioinformatics for very large sequence datasets. He continues to examine simulations of evolutionary processes to design complex artifacts and optimize functions. He works in close collaboration with biologists, statisticians, mathematicians, and computer scientists.
» View James Foster's profile

Peter G. Fuerst, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
My lab is attempting to identify and understand the molecular cues that promote development of the nervous system by studying mice that have mutations in recognition factors and that express fluorescent markers that label specific neural cell types.
» View Peter Fuerst's Profile

Luke J. Harmon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Our research investigates ecological and evolutionary aspects of adaptive radiations. Current projects span a wide range of taxa and time scales, including adaptive radiation in E. coli biofilms, evolution of island lizards in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, and macroevolutionary dynamics of vertebrates. You will find more information about all of these projects on the research and publications pages.
» View Luke Harmon's Profile

Paul Hohenlohe, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Our research focuses on the genomic architecture of evolving populations, developing sophisticated theory and analytical tools to harness the power of modern DNA sequencing technology. We address basic questions of evolutionary biology as well as applications to conservation and cancer biology.
» View Paul Hohenlohe's profile

Craig P. McGowan
Assistant Professor
My research interests are centered on understanding the relationships between the musculoskeletal morphology of terrestrial vertebrate animals (including humans) and the biomechanics and neural control of locomotor performance.

» cpmcgowan@uidaho.edu

Craig Miller, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
» crmiller@uidaho.edu

James J. Nagler, Ph.D.
Interim Chair and Professor of Biological Sciences
Associate Director of WSU/UI Center for Reproductive Biology
The Nagler laboratory studies the effect of environmental factors, such as contaminants, photoperiod and diet on the reproductive biology of salmonid fishes.
» View Dr. Nagler's profile

Scott L. Nuismer, Ph.D.
Professor
My research focuses on the ecology and evolution of species interactions. The overall aim is to better understand how coevolution shapes patterns of biodiversity and the geographic distributions of interacting species. Work in my lab addresses these issues with a combination of mathematical modeling and field studies.
» View Scott Nuismer's Profile

Barrie Robison, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
My general research interests lie at the interface between genomics, evolutionary biology, and fisheries biology. Specific areas of research emphasis in my lab include the genetic architecture of complex traits, the evolution of locally adaptive phenotypes, and genomic analysis of behavioral variation in fish. I employ two study systems to investigate these issues, the rainbow trout and the zebrafish.
View Barrie's profile
» brobison@uidaho.edu

Deborah Stenkamp, Ph.D.
Professor
Stenkamp’s research interests center on the examination of cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate retinal development and regeneration, with a specific focus on photoreceptor differentiation, using zebrafish as the primary experimental model.
» View Deborah Stenkamp's profile

John "Jack" M. Sullivan, Ph.D.
Professor
Our understanding of the processes of nucleotide substitution (DNA sequence evolution) has been expanding greatly over the last 10 years. Furthermore, it has become apparent that ignoring such processes as heterogeneity of base composition, substitution pattern, and rate variation among nucleotide sites can compromise attempts to estimate phylogeny from DNA sequence data. Therefore, model-based analyses of DNA sequence data have become increasingly wide spread because such approaches afford the investigator the opportunity to account for such processes explicitly.
» View Jack Sullivan's Profile

Eva Top, Ph.D.
Professor
Director of BCB
My research is currently focused on the evolution and ecology of plasmids that transfer to and replicate in a broad range of bacteria. Plasmids are mobile genetic elements found in most bacteria. Because they readily transfer between different types of bacteria under natural conditions, they play an important role in rapid bacterial adaptation to changing environments. A good example is the current epidemic of multiple antibiotic resistance in human pathogens, which is largely due to the spread of multi-drug resistance plasmids. Although plasmid-mediated gene transfer is now recognized as a key mechanism in the alarming rise of antibiotic resistance, little is known about their host range, their ability to invade bacterial populations in the absence of selection, and their genetic diversity. We are addressing these questions using various Proteobacteria and plasmids as model systems.
» View Eva Top's Profile

Holly A. Wichman, Ph.D.
University Distinguished Professor
The Wichman Lab studies viruses and their subcellular relatives, transposable elements. These two lines of research are united by a molecular approach and a strong evolutionary context. L1 elements have been active in mammals for over 150 million years and make up about 20% of the genome. Most of the copies in the genome are ancient molecular fossils, so it is a challenge to sift through all of the old copies to find those that have been recently active.
View Holly's profile
» hwichman@uidaho.edu