About FAU Biology

The 21^st Century brings new career opportunities in the area of life sciences, ranging from biomedical research to environmental sciences. Many of these new jobs require a non-traditional education that crosses disciplinary boundaries. The mission and challenge for the Department of Biological Sciences is to train students for traditional careers such as medicine as well as the emerging careers in a global economy. The Department of Biological Sciences offers both B.S. and B.A. degree programs in biological sciences. These programs are designed to prepare students for careers in life sciences and advanced education in graduate and professional schools. We also provide graduate education leading to M.S. degrees in biological sciences and environmental science; Masters in Teaching degrees (M.S.T.); Professional Science Masters in Business Biotechnology (P.S.M.); as well as Ph.D. degrees in Integrative Biology (IB). Our IB Ph.D. degree offers the option to focus on neuroscience or environmental science.

The Department of Biological Sciences is now the largest department in the University and a leader in three areas of effort; teaching, research and service. The number of undergraduate majors has been growing steadily; we now have over 2500 declared majors and 300 students graduate per year with Bachelors degrees in Biology. The number of student hours of instruction for majors and non-majors is the largest in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (CESCOS). In spite of the large size and consequent workload of faculty, the Department is an innovator in education and has obtained NSF education grants, developed an Honors program that was the blueprint for the University wide Honors program and has engaged greater than 10% of the undergraduate majors (>250 students) in some form of research. A significant number of the honors students have worked on capstone thesis projects and many have published papers with their mentors.