Departmental Brochure

As a biology major at Fairfield University, you can prepare for a professional career in the life and health sciences. You will undertake a thorough study of the foundations of this exciting field and advanced courses that move you into areas of personal interest. You will be guided by faculty with excellent academic credentials, a lively interest in research, and a thorough commitment to teaching. All of our faculty teach and supervise the laboratories associated with their courses. With small, upperclassmen lecture sections and labs of 10 to 18 students, our professors can maintain a working relationship that will help you achieve strong academic and personal growth. You will have opportunities to test your professional interests by being involved in original research conducted by faculty or by serving in internships with health providers, environmental centers, and other research laboratories. Recent graduates have enrolled in graduate schools (in M.S. and Ph.D. programs) and the medical schools at Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, the New York universities, and many others.

Real-World Education

The biology department seeks to provide you with an understanding and appreciation of the diversity of living things, their adaptations to environment, and their evolutionary and ecological relationships. By studying these at the molecular, cellular, organismal, and population levels, the program emphasizes the similar problems faced by all living organisms. You will receive "hands-on" experience in the laboratory skills most critical to today's biologist, the molecular biologist. These fundamental understandings are necessary for you as an aspiring biologist, to grasp the issues of the day as they arise in medical, dental, allied health, and graduate schools, and in careers in the life and medical sciences. Such issues will be brought home to you in upper-level courses and in laboratories by faculty who are themselves actively engaged in diverse areas of biological research. Our network of faculty associations opens doors of opportunity for you with government and private agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and others having central involvement in issues that concern biology, health, and the environment.

Resources

The biology department has state of-the-art instructional and research laboratories in its newly constructed Steere Center of Biology. Many of our classes and labs use the latest wireless laptop technology for inquiry-based, hands-on instruction and student research. Our student lounge areas provide Internet access. Computer labs with Internet access and several software packages are also available in our facilities.

Course of Study

The biology major, undertaken along with a core program in the liberal arts, is developed from a solid foundation laid in the first two years.

Freshman Year

• General Biology I & II
• General Inorganic Chemistry I & II
• Calculus I & II

Sophomore Year

• Organic Chemistry I & II
• General Physics I & II
• General Biology III

In the final two years, you will choose a minimum of six upper-level courses. Three of the six courses must have a laboratory component.

• Three block electives, one from each of the following blocks:

Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Science

Animal Behavior; Biochemical Ecology; Coral Reef Ecology Seminar; Ecology; Ecology of the North Atlantic Coast Seminar; Environmental Health and Safety; Evolutionary Biology; Freshwater Ecology; Marine Invertebrate Zoology; Ornithology; Plant Biology: Evolution, Diversity, and Environment; and Principles of Aquaculture Seminar.

Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Bacterial Pathogenesis Seminar; Cell Biology; Developmental Biology; General Virology; Genetics;  Immunology; Microbiology; Molecular Biology; Molecular Mechanisms of Human Disease Seminar; and Recombinant DNA Technology.

Physiology and Morphology

Biochemistry; Comparative Physiology; Endocrinology; Histology; Human Physiology; Nutrition and Metabolism; Parasitology; Parasitology Seminar; and Plant Biology: Morphology, Biochemistry, and Physiology.

• Three upper-level biology electives in the 200 or 300 level
• One capstone elective consisting of either research, internship, or an advanced seminar course

The elective portion of the program may be altered according to your career interests. In addition to the regular miology major, the department offers a minor in marine biology and a concentration in molecular biology. We also cosponsor with chemistry a minor in biochemistry.

The Faculty

In addition to their teaching commitments, all members of the biology faculty are active researchers working with the support of government, foundation, and other grants. They are listed with their general fields of research:

Research and Internships

All faculty members are engaged in original research and offer opportunities to qualified juniors and seniors to participate in the design, execution, and analysis of experiments in the laboratory. Biology majors have been coauthors with faculty on papers published in professional journals and have presented papers at conferences. The diverse interests of the faculty help students to participate in collaborative opportunities at other research laboratories in the region, such as Yale University, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Connecticut, Bayer Pharmaceutical, and the State Forensics Laboratory. Biology students also conduct faculty-mentored research during the summer, at Fairfield and other collaborative institutions.

Internships are also established at St. Vincent's and Bridgeport hospitals; Hartford, Danbury, Norwalk, Waterbury and Stamford hospitals; the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven; Fairfield County Rehabilitation Center; the Burke Rehabilitation Center in White Plains, N.Y.; Westport Nature Center; The Maritime Center in Norwalk; Mystic Marinelife Aquarium; Bridgeport Regional Aquaculture School; Bridgeport Hydraulic Company; Stratford Conservation Commission; Connecticut Audubon Society; and at the offices of various medical practitioners.

Life After Fairfield

Of course, many students majoring in biology follow the pre-med concentration and have become surgeons, family physicians, psychiatrists, dentists, and veterinarians. In addition to medicine and advanced study, career paths chosen by graduates of recent years include allied health fields: chiropractic, epidemiology, mortuary science, nutrition, medical lab technology, optometry, osteopathy, physiotherapy, physician assistants, public health, and podiatry. Several have gone to law school with the aim of specializing in forensics or environmental law. Others have found positions in government agencies where knowledge of biology is a qualification and some have taken business positions in hospital administration or with pharmaceutical companies. Those entering graduate schools have specialized in at least 20 different fields of modern biology.

Profiles

Meghan Dancho
Biology major
"As a biology major, it's possible to have two to three labs a week. My friends find it hard to believe I enjoy a nearly four-hour class. But the projects and experiments we work on are fun and interesting, so the time goes by fast. I'm also a lab assistant and set up for biochemistry, genetics, and cellular biology laboratories.

Last summer, I worked on the latest advancements in endangered animal conservation, genetic, and reproductive technology research at the Audubon Center for Research in Endangered Species.

Whatever you decide to major in, if you love it, stick with it. Even if it seems difficult at first, the professors are here to guide you."

For further information consult our web page or contact:

Dr. Glenn Sauer, department chair
Bannow 216
Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT 06824-5195
(203) 254-4000 ext. 2741
E-mail: gsauer@mail.fairfield.edu