Biology

News & Events

Read below for information on special events, faculty-student collaborations, curriculum changes & alumni success.



 

Biology News

  • Kira McEntire '13
    The Science and Art of Salamanders

    Kira McEntire ’13 explores creative expression while teaching and researching wildlife biology.

  • Megan Schubert Leese ’01
    Looking out for the Community

    Inspired by a service trip to Honduras during one eye-opening spring break, Megan Schubert Leese ’01 now champions public health.

  • Distinguished Professional: Roy Rivera ’02
    Dr. Roy Rivera Jr. ’02

    Distinguished Professional

  • Ben Pierce
    SU Alumna Reflects on Newly Published Paper on Threatened Salamanders

    Professor of Biology Ben Pierce and former Southwestern students Areli Gutierrez (now Flannery) ’15 and Samuel Guess ’17 published an article titled “Within-Spring Movement of the Georgetown Salamander (Eurycea naufragia)” in the August 2018 issue of Herpetological Conservation and Biology.

  • Watch the final beam ceremony.
    Final Beam Ceremony

    Watch special moments from the Final Beam Ceremony including: Jack Garey signing the final beam and a bird’s eye view of the construction.

  • Meet your biology faculty and staff. 
    BioScope - Fall 2018 Ed.

    BioScope provides news, updates and descriptions of the activities of the Biology Department at Southwestern.

  • SCOPE: Collaborative Summer Research
    Students SCOPE Out Engaged Research Possibilities

    In this collaborative summer experience, SCOPE Scholars spend eight weeks conducting full-time research alongside Southwestern faculty mentors.

  • Spring Picnic 2018
    Biology Honors its Senior Graduates!

    Every Spring, the Biology Department hosts a Spring Picnic honoring its Biology and Animal Behavior Senior Graduates. Faculty sign up for some potluck items and we order sandwich trays for a great picnic. We set-up this year’s’ picnic in the shadow of construction on FJS, but had such a nice day and some shade from the trees as well. Each graduate also got their own personalized graduate hat cookie thanks to Lab Director Dr. Stacie Brown.

    Below are photos highlighting the event!

  • Dr. Catherine Chappell '03
    Alumna Researches the Screening of Hepatitis C in Babies

    Alumna Dr. Catherine Chappell ’03 finds that fewer than a third of infants exposed to hepatitis C are later screened to monitor and treat the potentially fatal virus.

  • Cullen Building
    Biology Capstone Presentations

    Biology students presented the findings from their review papers or independent research in the first stand-alone Capstone seminar. Biology Capstone is a course for senior biology students in which you investigate advanced topics in biology thereby integrating the concepts and knowledge you have gained from previous courses taken in the major. In the first Capstone seminar, students explored the topic of epigenetics with Dr. Pierce. Epigenetics has been defined as inheritance above and beyond differences in DNA sequences. Epigenetic effects usually result from other changes in DNA, such as traits and processes that are transmitted to cells and sometimes across generations that are not the result of differences in DNA base sequences, usually involving other changes to DNA such as methylation and chromatin structure that affect gene expression. Epigenetics has been called “inheritance, but not as we know it.” Over the past several years, much research has demonstrated that epigenetic effects are important in behavior, cancer, nutrition, response to pollutants, and evolution. After a semester of research, students will present their Capstone papers.