Department of Biology Overview
The Department of Biology at Appalachian State University is composed of 24 full-time faculty, several adjunct faculty, approximately 500 undergraduate majors, and 31 graduate students. The Department also employs several full-time technical staff including a molecular biology technician, a laboratory manager, a director of the electron microscopy facility and a greenhouse manager, as well as two administrative assistants. The Department is housed on three floors of the Rankin Science Building located on campus. The Department maintains an off-campus greenhouse, a herbarium, and oversees several natural land tracts located on or near campus. The highly diverse faculty is committed to providing its majors with a quality education in the life sciences.
The Department offers programs leading to the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Master of Science (M.S.), and Master of Arts (M.A.) in education degrees. A unique strength of the Biology Department is its commitment to providing extensive field and laboratory experiences for its majors. This includes numerous one-day and weekend trips to coastal and nearby mountain habitats, as well as longer trips to areas such as the Florida Keys, the Everglades, the deserts of the southwestern United States, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and Belize. Additionally, most courses include extensive laboratory components where students gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art technology in areas such as cell and molecular biology, microbiology, immunology, plant and animal physiology, and developmental biology.
The mission of the Department of Biology emphasizes the complementary roles of teaching and research in educating students. Research is fundamentally important to the growth of the faculty and the teaching vitality of the Department. The Department has emphases in several areas. First, the Department trains a large number of students in the fields of ecology and environmental biology. The northwestern region of North Carolina has a rich, but threatened, biodiversity which provides a natural laboratory for teaching ecosystem functions and the problems they face. Our goal is to prepare students for a wide variety of careers in ecology and environmental biology. Second, the Department educates students in the biomedical sciences to prepare them for advanced degrees in medicine, biotechnology, and other health-related areas. Our students are accepted into medical schools and other professional degree programs at rates well above the national average. Third, the Department provides the majority of the science education component in the undergraduate curriculum, including teacher training for certification in secondary science education. We prepare students to be excellent science teachers. Fourth, we provide our graduate students with advanced coursework and numerous opportunities to conduct research. The Biology faculty have a variety of research interests, and they advise and mentor graduate students in areas ranging from molecular genetics, immunology, and developmental biology to population biology of endangered species and community ecology. In addition to attending professional schools, many of our graduate students have successfully pursued a wide variety of positions involving biology, such as biomedical and ecology research associates, college and university professors, environmental specialists, and park naturalists.
The Department of Biology strives to keep abreast of the rapidly changing disciplines of biology and state-of-the-art technology so that our majors remain competitive for jobs and professional schools. The faculty are committed to innovative and rigorous teaching at all levels and firmly believe that the scientific method as practiced by biologists is central to a well-rounded liberal arts education.
For additional information on the Department of Biology, contact:
Dr. Steven W. Seagle
Chairperson, Department of Biology
P. O. Box 32027
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608-2027
Email: seaglesw@appstate.edu
Telephone: 828-262-3025
FAX: 828-262-2127
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