The research interests of the faculty collectively represent most areas of biology and can be described in six overlapping concentrations:
Research includes diverse aspects of adaptation, animal movement and habitat selection, sexual selection, social behavior, community assembly, stress, insect-plant interactions, speciation, evolution, metamorphosis, and wildlife management.
Research focus includes diverse aspects of conservation, habitat loss and fragmentation, range expansion and contraction, invasion ecology, extinction risk, stress physiology, adaptation, resilience, ocean acidification, and climate change.
Research in this area studies the fundamental properties of nucleic acids, proteins and other biomolecules, and how they function within cells and organisms in both healthy and disease states.
This burgeoning field of biology seeks to understand how complex tissues and organisms arise from the ordered expression of genes and signaling interactions between cells.
Neurobiology is the study of how nervous systems function. It is currently one of the largest and fastest growing areas of biology.
Research in this area explores learning, instruction and curriculum design specific to the discipline of biology at the undergraduate and graduate levels.