Biology

Office: Donnelly Science Center, Room 247
Telephone: 410‑617‑2642
Fax: 410‑617‑5682
Website: www.loyola.edu/academics/biology

Chair: Lisa Z. Scheifele, Associate Professor

Director of Advising and Curriculum: Theresa M. Geiman

Professors: Henry C. Butcher IV (emeritus); Charles R. Graham, Jr. (emeritus); Donald A. Keefer (emeritus); David B. Rivers
Endowed Professor: Michael A. Tangrea
Associate Professors: Rebecca S. Brogan; Elissa Miller Derrickson; Kim C. Derrickson; Theresa M. Geiman; Armina A. Kazi; Derek M. Kendig; Bernadette M. Roche; Lisa Z. Scheifele; Andrew J. Schoeffield; Christopher Thompson; Maren E. Veatch-Blohm
Affiliate Faculty: Kolaleh Hassan; Reagan Lake; Lauren Spearman

The Biology Department is an active, student-centered department that focuses on excellence in teaching and undergraduate research. The Major in Biology is designed to provide the depth, scope, and skills necessary for the job market or admission to graduate and professional schools. The biology degree requirements include a minimum of 10 courses in biology, as well as courses from chemistry, physics, and mathematics and statistics.

The three introductory biology courses required for the major provide a foundation to each of the three major areas of biology: cell and molecular biology, structure and function of organisms, and ecology and evolutionary biology. The upper-level curriculum allows students flexibility to explore the sub-disciplines of biology in greater depth. In the upper-level curriculum, courses generally consist of a classroom component with associated laboratory and/or seminar experiences.

The discipline of biology is experiential in nature, which means that students are active participants in their own education. Students are required to take one advanced course in each of the three major areas of biology. These advanced courses include laboratory components in which students learn how to think and write like scientists, often while designing and executing an experiment. They also learn how to work cooperatively as contributing members of a team and develop a greater sense of academic community.

The general biology curriculum is flexible in the major's requirements by allowing students to select seven upper-division courses from a wide array of offerings, of which four are unrestricted. This flexibility allows students to individualize their curriculum to suit their academic and career goals. Loyola's biology curriculum helps to prepare students as academicians, for their professional career after Loyola, and as lifelong learners.

The Biology Department emphasizes the following objectives:

The fostering of supportive student-faculty relationships. Students engage in a caring and open student-faculty relationship in which they view faculty as both models and mentors. Students understand the inevitability of making mistakes during the process of growing from student to biologist.

The preparation of students for life after Loyola as members of the job market or for studies in graduate or professional schools. Through a flexible curriculum, students make appropriate connections between their coursework, the world around them, and their personal strengths and convictions.

Through its nurturing mentorship and flexible curriculum, the department attempts to produce broadly trained biologists ready for a wide range of careers by emphasizing the learning aims.

Learning Aims

The Biology Department has developed the following learning aims for the biology major:

Students will master the current factual content of different sub-disciplines within biology, such as molecular/cellular, organismal, and population biology.
Students will demonstrate the ability to organize, apply, and synthesize the large quantities of new scientific information into a meaningful framework.
Students will show a clear understanding of the scientific process and effectively engage in conducting research based on their ability to read, understand, and critically evaluate primary literature articles; ask scientific questions; design experiments testing hypotheses; and analyze, display, and interpret data using statistical and graphical software packages.
Students will demonstrate proficiency in communicating effectively in a variety of formats, including verbal, written, and symbolic (mathematical) channels. They will exhibit the ability to write papers in appropriate scientific formats; discuss scientific experiments in a group; present results verbally and in poster formats; and use computer and graphical models to explain biological phenomenon.
Students will be able to articulate the ethical issues surrounding the practice and direction of biological research.
Students will become active and engaged citizens who take active leadership and service roles in the larger community, particularly when issues arise related to their biological training.

Programs

Major

Biology, BS

Interdisciplinary Majors

Minor

Courses

Biology