Slider photo credits: Adam Haberski (Slide 1), JR Ancheta (Slides 2, 3,& 5), Peter Mather (Slide 4)

 

FIND US

in the Classroom

Teaching

Margaret Murie Life Science Building LobbyThe Biology and Wildlife Department is located in the Margaret Murie Building with state-of-the art classrooms and laboratories where students engage in inquiry-based learning and are challenged to pursue their own research passion in a capstone experience. 

We have online courses too!

in the Field

Research

Field work with snowshoe haresUAF is America’s Arctic University. Students and faculty in the Biology and Wildlife Department are at the forefront of documenting and understanding the changing Arctic – its people, plants, animals, and landscape.  

in the Community

Outreach

Handing out hand lenses in ShishmarefTeaching and research in the Biology and Wildlife Department are intertwined and embedded within the Alaskan communities where we work. Faculty and students endeavor to improve the lives of Alaskans – from developing diet interventions to minimize chronic disease, to understanding how climate change is impacting subsistence resources.

WHERE RESEARCH HAPPENS

UAF is Alaska’s premier research university and the only PhD-granting institution in the state.  Research in the Department of Biology and Wildlife spans the breadth of the biological sciences, from molecular biology to ecosystem science.  Investigating emerging viral pathogens, microbes that detoxify environmental contaminants, the molecular genetics of obesity and diabetes, impacts of climate change on polar organisms and ecosystems, and more, our faculty work alongside graduate, undergraduate and high school students to address key issues of vital interest to Alaska and beyond.

 

 
Announcements
  • Featured in the UAF Cornerstone: Falk Huettmann

    10/25/2023

    Department of Biology & Wildlife faculty member Dr. Falk Huettmann was featured in an article for the Cornerstone by Amy Loeffler entitled "Machine learning provides a new picture of the great gray owl"! Click through the link to read the article.

  • Featured on the Grad School Student Spotlight: Elizabeth Parry

    June 1, 2023

    Biological Sciences PhD student, Elizabeth Parry was featured on the Gradutate School Student Spotlight! You can click through to read an interview about her work developing a tool to measure food security through a One Health lens.

  • Featured in the Sun Star Thesis Watch: Akashia Martinez

    April 24, 2023

    Our own Akashia Martinez was featured in a Sun Star article by Zeke Shomler all about her thesis defense! Akashia's thesis title is "Kit-rearing in the far north: Movement behavior and activity patterns of female Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) during the denning season."

  • Grad Students: Supplemental annual report for the department due by May 25

    Apr 10, 2023

    As many of our grad students are arranging meetings for the annual report of the advisory committee, please remember to also complete the supplemental annual report. Each year the department gathers necessary program information through this report. It shouldn’t take too much of your time – and this information is valuable to the department for reporting purposes. We need to hear from each one of our graduate students to make the information most meaningful! 

     

    To submit, log in to the B&W restricted site, then from the Student menu in the upper right, select Supplemental Annual Report. If you have any issues logging in contact Rachel Elmer: raelmer@alaska.edu 

  • Exciting changes to the Biological Sciences Bachelor of Arts degree

    April 12, 2022

    Are you interested in the intersection of science and societal issues?

     

    The updated Biological Sciences B.A. degree program (catalog year 2022-23) is an interdisciplinary degree that invites students to combine coursework in biology with a minor and other subjects of interest in the social sciences or humanities. 

     

    New Capstone: BIOL F410 Integrative Capstone in Biological Sciences (3 credits, starts spring 2023). Learn and apply concepts in interdisciplinary integration across the sciences, arts, humanities, and social sciences. Then, combine the biological sciences with another discipline (e.g. your minor) in a creative independent project that fulfills the B.A. capstone requirement. 

     

    BIOL F410 will be taught in spring 2023! Students under older catalog years may petition it for capstone credit.

     

    Also new: an optional concentration in Environmental Change. Take the new interdisciplinary Environmental Change minor, including courses like Global Change Biology, to complete this concentration.

 
Murie Building
Sunrise reflected in the Margaret Murie Life Science Building. Photo credit: Diane Wagner 2014