OUR MISSION To serve the communities of our world, nation, state, and university by advancing understanding of living organisms and their interactions with the environment through research, to provide high-quality biology education with an emphasis on experiential learning and problem solving, and to build public understanding of the living world through educational outreach activities for learners of all ages. As you will note from the research interests of our faculty, many biological disciplines are represented in this department, including ecology, cellular and molecular biology, systematics, marine science, microbiology and more. However, most of us use diverse approaches to our research, and our individual expertise may span several areas of biology. For example, our plant or animal physiologists bring genomic and molecular biology methods to their research questions, and neurobiologists study environmental interactions with genes and animal behaviors to study stress responses. Most of us collaborate extensively on research with colleagues in the department and around the globe. Our students and faculty also are committed to scientific outreach, and donate our time and expertise to activities that communicate the importance of biology in the lives of people in our communities and how much fun it is to learn about biology. From activities during homecoming Saturdays to working with middle school students in their classrooms, to enrichment in afterschool programs, we are engaged!