Dr. Marcia Newcomer, Chair
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Department of Biological Sciences
at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The Department excels
in fostering cross-cutting, interdisciplinary research initiatives by
removing administrative and phylogenetic constraints, and by encouraging
interaction among our diverse faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students.
It is our view that this approach is a critical one for science in the
21st century and yields significant rewards in the pace and quality
of discovery. Such a strategy can bring powerful problem solving capabilities
to bear on basic research questions that unidimensional approaches have
been traditionally unsuccessful at solving. This also promotes innovative
educational opportunities for our undergraduate majors and reduces fragmentation
of the biological curriculum. Our department offers undergraduate degrees
in Biological Sciences, Biochemistry and Microbiology. A new area of
concentration has been established in marine biology. Further information
about our undergraduate curricula can be found here.
Biological Sciences is now the largest academic unit on campus based
on the number of tenure-track faculty (63), with 1300 undergraduate
majors. To maintain our traditional strengths and foci, we have established
three Divisions within our Department: Biochemistry
& Molecular Biology; Cellular,
Developmental, & Integrative Biology; and Systematics,
Ecology, & Evolution. Overviews of the diverse research interests
of our faculty can be found here.
There are approximately 130 graduate students in the department. Funding
for these students comes from a combination of departmental teaching
assistantships, fellowships, and external research support. Further
information on our graduate program can be obtained here.
The Department maintains close linkages with the Museum
of Natural Science and the LSU
Herbarium and is a member of the Louisiana
Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), which provides excellent
facilities and opportunities for marine and estuarine research. Numerous
collaborations are maintained with other units on campus, and a diverse
array of field sites are utilized by our faculty. For a more complete
description of our facilities and resources please click here.
Thank you for visiting our web site. Please feel free to contact us
if you have questions or comments.
Return to Home.
