The Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park is committed to solving the challenges confronting modern biology by the integrated study of biomolecules, cells, organisms, and populations, within the context of how these entities interact with the natural environment. Laboratories throughout the department thrive by working across these traditional levels of biological investigation. With strong links to neighboring federal institutions, our research takes an interdisciplinary approach, and often uses quantitative and computational approaches.
Sample projects in our three broad research themes of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; Evolutionary Developmental Biology; and Sensory Neurobiology:
- Models of evolution and the genetic basis for complex traits
- Prediction of the effects of large-scale forces on populations
- Sensory information processing by the brain
- Molecular dynamics of membrane proteins
The Department of Biology supports, administers and advises students in three undergraduate programs:
- Biological Sciences
- Neuroscience
- Environmental Science and Policy
Department of Biology faculty members advise 60 graduate students pursuing degrees in many different interdisciplinary graduate programs, including:
- Biological Sciences
- Neuroscience and Cognitive Science
- Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences
- Biophysics
- Applied Mathematics & Statistics, and Scientific Computation