Boston University’s Biology Department is thriving and evolving in the midst of an exciting time in the world of science. With a new state-of-the-art facility set to open this spring, a vast academic program that offers students an array of specific disciplines to specialize in and unique study abroad opportunities, BU biology is pulsing.
The interdisciplinary approach to the biology concentration characterizes BU’s department, according to department chair and professor Geoffrey Cooper.
“Most universities no longer have single biology departments,” Cooper said. “Our [department] is largely organizational and it allows students to act on their education across a number of disciplines.”
As a professor, chairman and advisor, Cooper has witnessed much progress within the interactive environments of the department. He said he sees the future of BU biology combining endeavors in bioinformatics, medicine and physics.
A TIME OF GROWTH
Cooper, a molecular biologist who discovered the basic function of the genes that cause cancer, said he considers his move from Harvard Medical School to BU in 1998 one that occurred during a decade of extreme growth in the life sciences – when genome deciphering and computational biology studies became relevant topics of study in the shadow of the Human Genome Project.
“To be a player in this interactive life sciences field, we needed to expand our efforts,” Cooper said. For the Biology Department, this principle would unfold in the form of a more expansive, multi-faceted program full of high-tech labs and globally recognized faculty.
In the six years Cooper has been chairman of the department, the department has acquired 16 new faculty members as well as the new Life Science and Engineering Building at 54 Cummington St., which is set to open this spring.
“Students will find opportunity for research in brand new laboratories,” Cooper said of the $84 million lab. “Lab space will be allotted to 20 faculty members ranging in discipline from neurobiology to genetics.”
The College of Engineering’s Bioinformatics Graduate Program, a combinatory course of study highlighting computational analysis of DNA databases, will also find its home in the new facility.
“It has, of course, changed in its specifics, though my overall vision [for the department] remains the same: we want to cover the broad base of biology, both with respect to teaching and research,” Cooper said. “It is important to maintain the department as a system of integrated disciplines, not necessarily focusing on any specific area of research.”
KIDS WITH HEAVY BAGS
Freshmen begin their biology career at BU in the Metcalf Science Center by fulfilling a year-long track of two general evolutionary and life science classes that pack each lecture with more than 600 students.
Once the introductory biology curriculum is completed, student records are transferred to 5 Cummington St., where all official biology concentrators are assigned an advisor to guide them through the rest of their careers. Students are expected to meet with the same advisor from sophomore to senior year, according to department Academic Administrator Ruth Greene.
“It is important to note that students are biology majors with or without specialization,” Greene said.
Offering five optional, diverse specializations – cell and molecular biology; physiology, endocrinology and reproduction; marine biology; neurobiology; or ecology, behavior and evolution – a biology concentration in the College of Arts and Sciences promises one of the most interdisciplinary programs on campus to its enrolled students whose career goals range from medicine to botany.
Cell and molecular biology, as well as ecology, behavior and evolution, are the specializations that appeal to the largest number of biology undergraduates, according to Cooper.
Students explore one of the five focuses and attempt to pinpoint future success in a field site, laboratory or industry environment for the final three years of their college career.
“The advantage of Boston University is that all of those disciplines are located here on campus and we are well-positioned to take advantage of these programs,” Cooper said.
LEAVING THE BOSTON NEST
Students remain eligible for study abroad programs offered through the biology department despite their specialization status, including a research residency on Cape Cod and fieldwork in the tropics of Ecuador.
Those thirsty for the aquatic sciences may take try out the Woods Hole Marine Semester, a laboratory-intensive experience organized by the BU Marine Program that is offered both semesters.
Students live in on-campus or private housing for 12 to 14 weeks and can bask in daily exposure to such local scientific resources as the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, both world-renowned for their research.
For others with a palate for adventure, the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology works with the Biology Department to offer the tropical ecology semester in equatorial Ecuador. From a 10-day hike through the Galapagos Islands to a four-week research project at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the Amazonian rainforest, this exotic abroad program guarantees students an 18-credit semester, a complete research paper and the thrill of a lifetime.
AFTER THE B.S.
On the Charles River campus, graduate degree attention is no less intensive: biology at BU fosters 19 Master’s students and 100 doctoral candidates in areas of marine biology; cell and molecular biology; ecology, behavior and evolution; neurobiology; and physiology, endocrinology and reproduction.
Meredith Zaccherio, a doctoral student in ecology, explained her passion for finding a way people and the environment can effectively coexist.
“There must be a way that humans can sustain and live comfortably on this planet without destroying the land and wiping out other species,” she said.
Zaccherio performs frequent seedling analysis between laboratory sites on BU’s campus and two posts in Connecticut and North Carolina. Her study considers the effects of soil nutrients, particularly nitrogen and calcium, on the growth and mortality of tree seedlings.
“The relatively small size of the department allows for personalized interactions with the professors and a tightly knit graduate student community,” she said. “Opportunities to collaborate with other researchers are abundant and the breadth of student interests is complemented by the depth of knowledge several well-respected professors possess.”
PHENOMENAL FACULTY RESEARCH
Genetics professor John Celenza maintains a complex lab that integrates genetic, molecular and biochemical techniques to observe development of Arabidopsis thaliana – the common mustard seed. As with all biological projects, his work has many real-world applications requiring consistent, stable equipment for success. Celenza said he hopes to increase universal understanding of plant biology.
“My underlying goal is that the basic research discoveries my laboratory makes today will contribute to the useful agricultural technologies of tomorrow,” Celenza said.