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Focused areas of research and sub-disciplines

The Department of Biology is one of the premier teaching and research units on the Βι¶ΉΣ³»­ campus. Our faculty, post-docs and graduate students conduct internationally recognized research in a wide range of sub-disciplines and specialties. Below are just a few areas where the Department of Biology excels.

State-of-the-art facilities

The Cellular and Molecular Imaging core facility of the Integrative Neuroscience COBRE center provides users with instruments and services for analyzing and quantification of biomolecules, and microscopic investigation of cells, tissues, organs, and small animals with imaging capabilities for brightfield and fluorescent microscopy.

Explore the CMI core facility
Cellular and Molecular Imaging facility

Interdisciplinary research centers

The Department of Biology supports two interdisciplinary and globally-engaged research centers.

The Hitchcock Center Leading research in the field of chemical ecology world-wide.
Learn more about this interdisciplinary research center and program
Pieces of leaves taped to a paper and labeled next to a rack of test tubes with leaf pieces in them.
Global Water Center Tackling 21st-century water issues and engineering win-win, sustainable solutions for the environment.
Explore this global research
Sudeep Chandra sitting on a small boat on the Uur River in Mongolia across from Mongolian river guide Ganzorig. Both men are smiling.

Faculty and grant writing support

Proposal development and processing support is available to all Department of Biology faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Find out how the research support team can help you.

Research support

Graduate students leading research

The Department of Biology supports graduate students in their research from here in the beautiful Sierra Βι¶ΉΣ³»­ Mountains and around the world. Below are just a few examples of research being conducted by some of our current graduate students.

Lanie Galland

Lanie's interests revolve around comparative evolution, genetic architecture of adaptive traits, and genome divergence. She is investigating how historical, geographical, and environmental factors (including global climate change) shape genomic and phenotypic variation in multiple systems. Lanie is pursuing her Ph.D. in the Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Program.

For the past three years, Lanie has been traveling to northern Mongolia to study the threatened taimen, the world's largest trout in an effort to influence its conservation.

Danielle Salcido, Ph.D. candidate

Danielle Salcido is pursuing her Ph.D. under advisor Lee Dyer. Her research is focused on tri-trophic interactions between insects, particularly caterpillars and parasitoids, in Costa Rica and Ecuador. With 22 years of data to work with from these two sites, Danielle is pursuing the question of whether or not population declines are happening and why. She is also interested in the benefit of citizen scientists and incorporates volunteer researchers in her work.

Chris Halsch, Ph.D. candidate

Chris Halsch joined the Department of Biology under advisor Matt Forister to contribute to a long-term study of butterflies that includes 10 sites across Northern California which span an elevational gradient and have been monitored for more than 40 years. This is one of the longest-running studies of its kind and is a valuable and unique record of the biodiversity of the western US. Butterflies, like other insects, are very sensitive to environmental changes and can respond more quickly than longer-lived organisms. By continually surveying these sites we can better understand how these often overlooked animals are responding to a changing world.