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Biology
About the Department |
| The Earlham Biology
Department’s distinctive strength is its balanced curriculum
with unusual depth in fieldwork in ecology on the one
hand, and modern laboratory study in cellular and molecular
biology on the other. Students learn the principles of the variety
of sub-disciplines in biology, and they acquire skills in scientific
problem solving by means of laboratory, field and literature
research. The rich curriculum allows students to develop a strong
general program and to concentrate in the areas of cellular/ molecular/ physiological
or organismal/ ecological/ evolutionary biology. |
|  A
hallmark of biology at Earlham is the close working relationships
students develop with professors in the classroom, in the
laboratory and in the field. Recent cooperative student-faculty
research efforts have investigated a wide variety of topics
including immune responses in insects, population dynamics
of turtles and endangered iguanas,malaria genomics, presettlement vegetation and on old growth forest ecology, spider ecology in Dominica, landscape history and the dynamics of bird populations since the time of settlement, and the ecology of invasive weeds in deciduous forests.
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 During
their academic careers here, majors are encouraged to study abroad on one
of Earlham’s off-campus study programs or to study off-campus
through our affiliation with the Great Lakes Colleges Association/Associated
Colleges of the Midwest science programs at the Oak Ridge National
Laboratories in Tennessee and at Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute
in Massachusetts, or the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
The Biology Department faculty have been/will be active in leading
both semester-long off-campus programs (Tanzania, England, Oak Ridge and New Zealand) and shorter expeditions during May Term (Amazon, Galapagos,
Bahamas, Costa Rica, Virgin Islands, Dominica, Nebraska
Sandhills, Yellowstone). |
 Our
department emphasizes “hands-on” science. Our facilities
richly support this emphasis and include a state-of-the-art
molecular genetics laboratory, an ecology research lab, a
scanning electron microscope, open access to the campus computer
network, nationally acclaimed library facilities and access
to online resources, extensive greenhouse and animal care areas,
an excellent regional herbarium, and more than 800 acres of field study areas.
Many students take on active roles in our department
through their participation as teaching and research assistants and through their work with faculty and staff in the stockroom,
office and greenhouse. Students working in Earlham’s
Joseph Moore Museum of Natural History develop skills in preparing
specimens, caring for scientific collections and exhibits, and
providing educational programs to the wider regional community. |
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Earlham’s Biology Department
currently is ranked 8th among more than 1300 U.S. colleges and universities based on the proportion of graduates that go on to receive the Ph.D. in life sciences. Recent graduates have entered advanced programs at Berkeley, Chicago, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Purdue, Stanford, Tufts, and Yale; and at the Universities of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Wisconsin, and SUNY-Stonybrook. |
| A high percentage
of our medical school applicants are accepted at excellent
schools and pursue careers as physicians and medical researchers.
The same is true of our pre-veterinarian and pre-public health students. Many graduates go
on to teaching careers at all levels. Many follow careers
in environmental science and others are pursuing careers in
business, in government service including public health,
environmental consulting, endangered species protection and habitat
restoration, management in the National Wildlife and National Parks Service, grants administration,
ecotourism and natural history education.
Contact us:
Biology Department
Earlham College
801 National Road West, Drawer 165
Richmond, IN 47374
Phone:(765) 983-1210
Fax: (765) 983-1497 |
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