Slider Photo Credits: Slide 1-UAF (Dall sheep), Slide 2-UAF (biology lab), Slide 3-Michael Odum (semipalmated plover, Slide 4: Adam Haberski (grizzly bear cub), Slide 5-UAF (moose)
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.
-
Fall 2025 Course and Fee List Available!
April 29, 2025 -
Outstanding Biology and Wildlife Undergraduates for 2024-25
April 20, 2025Congratulations to Michelle Ramirez, Outstanding Biology Undergraduate, and Monica Casner, Outstanding Wildlife Undergraduate for 2024-25!
-
2024-25 Outstanding Teacher Award
April 4, 2025Congratulations to Ellen Candler, 2024-25 Outstanding Teacher in Biology and Wildlife!
-
April 20, 2025
Congratulations to Dakota Keller, the Outstanding Biology and WIldlife TA for 2024-25!
-
Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society recognized
February 2025This year, the UAF Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society is celebrating 50 years of advancing student engagement in wildlife conservation, research, and professional development!
-
Special Award to Wildlife Graduate Student
December 2024Congratulations to Tabitha Page for earning the Arts Award at the International Conference of the Wildlife Diseases Association for her interactive installation on Emerging Bacterial Diseases in Alaska's Small Mammals
-
New Climate and Environment Change B.S. degree launched
January 5, 2024A new interdisciplinary degree program called Climate and Environmental Change has launched and is running out of the Biology and Wildlife Department. To read more, check out the website!
-
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 2024! 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.
