{"id":1262,"date":"2011-07-14T13:33:08","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T13:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/?page_id=1262"},"modified":"2026-03-28T09:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T13:52:14","slug":"biology-at-bates","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Biology Department"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Biology is the study of living systems and how they interact with the nonliving world and with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Biology Department at Bates is a vibrant group of teacher-scholars dedicated to instilling in our students a love of biology and respect for the natural world while working earnestly to develop a program that embraces pedagogies to deliver an excellent STEM education in which all of our students will thrive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Summer undergraduate research experiences are taking applications now. Great way to gain experience!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Summer Internships<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Three-year projected course offerings in the Biology curriculum are now available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coursework Planning<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Our challenging curriculum of innovative coursework and research experiences prepares our students well for postgraduate training in a wide variety of professions including the health sciences, research and education. We are also enthusiastic about helping non-science majors see the value of science to society and to their everyday lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We invite you to explore our Biology program website to learn more about who we are and the exciting research and teaching we do. You will be inspired by reading about our students and alumni, their accomplishments, and the exciting educational opportunities we offer through research and community engaged learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projected course offerings in Biology for the next three years can be found here: 3-Year Projected Course Offerings<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Bates

Bates biology students have joined as effort at an organic farm in Freeport to work through the complex issues of soil contamination by PFAS, so-called forever chemicals, caused by the spread of contaminated sludge as fertilizer decades ago.\n\nHere, post-baccalaureate scholar Sebasti\u00e1n Le\u00f3n Fallas \u201924 (left) is teaching students how to collect a soil core sample. From left, Le\u00f3n Fallas, Trent Hieber \u201926 of Granby, Conn., John Harun-Delong \u201926 of Fairbanks, Alaska, Ben Leach \u201927 of Atlanta, and Bryn Murray \u201927 of Jupiter, Fla., who is a course teaching assistant.\n\nLaura and Winslow Robinson, owners and operators of Fable Farm, have invited scientists at Bates and Yale University to do grant-funded research to better understand the effects of PFAS on farm and to find scalable solutions to the crisis.\n\nThe Bates students are in the course \u201cBiological Research Experience: Molecules to Ecosystems,\u201d taught by Levi Adams, a lecturer in biology. It\u2019s the type of Bates course that engages students in hands-on research experiences, teaching them how to apply various research methods using multiple approaches that span a range of disciplines in biology, from molecular to ecological.<\/p><\/div>

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\"Associate

Associate Professor of Biology Larissa Williams teaches students in Bio s39f a lesson on \u201cuses of Genetic analysis to understand the population of dynamics of crabs in Maine.\u201d They met in Bonney 370 laboratory and received instruction on how to use a pipette, including closing their eyes in preparing to click the instrument.\n\nThe course\u2019s instructor is Jesse Minor \u201900, a lecturer in biology.<\/p><\/div>

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\"Bates

Bates biology students have joined as effort at an organic farm in Freeport to work through the complex issues of soil contamination by PFAS, so-called forever chemicals, caused by the spread of contaminated sludge as fertilizer decades ago.\n\nHere, post-baccalaureate scholar Sebasti\u00e1n Le\u00f3n Fallas \u201924 (left) is teaching students how to collect a soil core sample. From left, Le\u00f3n Fallas, Trent Hieber \u201926 of Granby, Conn., John Harun-Delong \u201926 of Fairbanks, Alaska, Ben Leach \u201927 of Atlanta, and Bryn Murray \u201927 of Jupiter, Fla., who is a course teaching assistant.\n\nLaura and Winslow Robinson, owners and operators of Fable Farm, have invited scientists at Bates and Yale University to do grant-funded research to better understand the effects of PFAS on farm and to find scalable solutions to the crisis.\n\nThe Bates students are in the course \u201cBiological Research Experience: Molecules to Ecosystems,\u201d taught by Levi Adams, a lecturer in biology. It\u2019s the type of Bates course that engages students in hands-on research experiences, teaching them how to apply various research methods using multiple approaches that span a range of disciplines in biology, from molecular to ecological.<\/p><\/div>

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\"Lecturer

Lecturer in Biology Jesse Minor \u201900 takes students in his Short Term on invasive green crabs to Cousins Island in Yarmouth for inventory monitoring and site assessment field trip.\n\nJessie Batchelder from Manomet joined them.<\/p><\/div>

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\"\u201cUsually

\u201cUsually at this hour, we\u2019d be down in the lecture hall.\u201d\n\n\u2014\tAssociate Professor of Biology Brett Huggett explaining why he took his dendrology students to the Carnegie Greenhouse rather than have them remain in the classroom to identify tree species.\n\nHuggett teaches BIO 271\/Dendrology and the Natural History of Tree, a field-based course in which students engage in the scientific study of the natural history and identification of trees and important shrubs native to New England, and some commonly planted non-native trees. Topics include the anatomy, function, taxonomy, biology, and uses of trees. Lecture topics support weekly outdoor laboratories, which may include trips to such field sites as the Saco Heath, Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary, and Wolfe’s Neck State Park. Study of the woody flora of New England serves as a foundation for further work in biology, environmental studies, conservation, or related fields.\n\n(Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)\n\n#batescollege #biology #stem #tress #dendrology #liberalarts #faculty #lab<\/p><\/div>

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\"\u201cUsually

\u201cUsually at this hour, we\u2019d be down in the lecture hall.\u201d\n\n\u2014\tAssociate Professor of Biology Brett Huggett explaining why he took his dendrology students to the Carnegie Greenhouse rather than have them remain in the classroom to identify tree species.\n\nHuggett teaches BIO 271\/Dendrology and the Natural History of Tree, a field-based course in which students engage in the scientific study of the natural history and identification of trees and important shrubs native to New England, and some commonly planted non-native trees. Topics include the anatomy, function, taxonomy, biology, and uses of trees. Lecture topics support weekly outdoor laboratories, which may include trips to such field sites as the Saco Heath, Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary, and Wolfe’s Neck State Park. Study of the woody flora of New England serves as a foundation for further work in biology, environmental studies, conservation, or related fields.\n\n(Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)\n\n#batescollege #biology #stem #tress #dendrology #liberalarts #faculty #lab<\/p><\/div>

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\"Lecturer

Lecturer in Biology Jesse Minor \u201900 takes students in his Short Term on invasive green crabs to Cousins Island in Yarmouth for inventory monitoring and site assessment field trip.\n\nJessie Batchelder from Manomet joined them.<\/p><\/div>

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\"Lucy

Lucy Hensley ’25 presents her Biology thesis research in the Research in STEM panel on Littorina obtusata prey responses to European green crabs, detailing possible next steps for the study to obtain more conclusive results.<\/p><\/div>

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\"Lucy<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biology is the study of living systems and how they interact with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1621,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_batesModPostContentOverride_prepend":false,"_batesModPostContentOverride_append":false,"_batesModPostContentOverride_append_before_footer":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"The Department of Biology at Bates College, including major requirements, courses and faculty.","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/academics\/majors-and-minors\/biology\/","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"class_list":["post-1262","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7729,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1262\/revisions\/7729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}