Slider photo credits: Adam Haberski (Slide 1), JR Ancheta (Slides 2, 3,& 5), Peter Mather (Slide 4)
COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement for Students in In-Person Lab Sections
Students enrolled in Spring Semester 2022 In-Person Biology/Wildlife lab courses may need to provide proof of vaccination. To see if your vaccination verification is required, refer to the B&W Student Vaccination Verification page.
FIND US
in the Classroom
Teaching
The 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.
in the Field
Research
UAF 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
Teaching 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.
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Biology professor hunts COVID-19 variants
June 2, 2022Read about Dr. Devin Drown's work tracking variants of the COVID-19 virus in the Aurora magazine
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Outstanding members of the Department of Biology & Wildlife
April 28, 2022This year's winners are:
Outstanding Undergraduate in Biological Sciences: Hannah Glesener
Outstanding Undergraduate in Wildlife Biology & Conservation: Sophia Bracio
Outstanding Instructor: Denise Kind
Outstanding Teaching Assistant: Sarah Swanson
Congratulations to these remarkable members of the department!
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Exciting changes to the Biological Sciences Bachelor of Arts degree
April 12, 2022Are 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.
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Animal Behavior students publish their capstone research
June 2, 2022Two former Biological Sciences students who took Animal Behavior (BIOL F441) with Dr. Alexander Kitaysky recently published their capstone research projects in peer-viewed journals.
Monica Mikes worked on diet and mass gain by pre-hibernating arctic ground squirrels; you can read her paper here.
Kimberly Fitzgerald's capstone research contributed to a larger study that introduces a minimally-invasive way to sample stress hormones in nestling birds. You can read her publication here.
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Learn about mushrooms this summer!
April 12, 2022If you are curious about how to identify mushrooms in the local environment, consider taking Mushrooms and Other Fungi, BIOL 195P, during summer session II (June 27 - 4 Aug; CRN 53274).
