Biology is a rapidly expanding, multifaceted discipline, full of possibilities for undergraduate research and for stimulating graduate study and employment after graduation.
Videos about É«½ç°É student research in biology
Our Mission Statement
As students progress from introductory courses through core courses, advanced electives, and mentored research in the liberal arts setting, they learn how to critically assess a scientific problem, collect and analyze data, write and speak about biology for general and technical audiences, and gain the skills needed for a competitive and rapidly changing job market.
What Sets É«½ç°É Bio Apart
Most undergraduate students in the Biology Department participate in high quality mentored research with faculty members. É«½ç°É Biology faculty are active scholars that make an impact on their fields, even though they are engaged in significant teaching responsibilities at a liberal arts college. Student research occurs either through independent research experiences in classes during the school year, as directed research one-on-one with faculty (as upper-division research credits), or through the college’s summer research program, which provides a stipend, housing, and research funds to participating students. For example, in our nationally recognized marine program, students take part in oceanic research on local coastal reefs and kelp forests with Dr. Dan Pondella and Dr. Amber Stubler, they explore mysterious invertebrates in the depths of the ocean with Dr. Shana Goffredi, and they study the lives of venomous fish-hunting cone snails with Dr. Joseph Schulz. Our recently-established Genomics Center unites new DNA sequencing technologies with museum specimens from our world-renowned biodiversity collections, including a stunning collection of ~120,000 mollusc shells (Cosman Shell Collection) curated by Dr. Schulz and the largest collection of Mexican birds in the world (~65,000) curated by Dr. John McCormack. The field of genomics continues to transform natural history collections, like those in the Anderson Center for Environmental Sciences, into an extraordinary source of potential new insights into biodiversity and environmental change. For example, Biology major McClaran Shirley (‘22) worked with Professors Stubler and Schulz to explore the long-term effects of ocean acidification on gastropods using the Cosman Shell Collection. By measuring shell morphometrics, she documented notable evidence for body size decrease, as well as reductions in calcification states, with oceanographic shifts in pH. This novel research approach was the subject of her Honor’s thesis and is currently in review (in Global Change Biology). International research opportunities abound, including studying the physiology of tropical epiphytes with Dr. Gretchen North and tropical marine sponges in Jamaica with Dr. Stubler. Closer to home, students work with Dr. Amanda Zellmer to explore the urban ecology of amphibians and other animals, using large data-sets obtained in part by camera traps, to study spatial ecological and evolutionary processes. Biology goes locally into the field to determine how plants will respond to climate change, by exploring water relations and functional traits in native species with our newest faculty member, Dr. Alex Pivovaroff. Dr. Gretchen North focuses on plant physiological ecology, with an emphasis on cellular mechanisms of water uptake by arid-land plants in our rooftop greenhouse. At the bench, Dr. Cheryl Okumura runs one of the only BioSafety Level 2 labs at any small liberal arts college, offering students the opportunity to study interactions between infectious Gram-positive bacterial species and human immune cells, at the molecular level. Finally, three of our faculty, Dr. Renee Baran, Dr. Kerry Thompson, and Dr. Schulz, investigate neuroscience from a variety of angles, from nervous system development to neurological disease progression and treatment to the evolution of neurotoxic venom peptides.
Related Minors
In 2015, Occidental's biology, cognitive science and psychology departments jointly created an interdisciplinary neuroscience minor. The minor is differentiated from a psychology or cognitive science major or minor by the inclusion of a strong neurobiology component for all students. The neuroscience minor requires 6 courses, including a statistics/methods class, and three upper-division classes outside of the student's major. In biology, neuroscience minors must complete Bio130 Introductory Cell & Molecular Biology, a 200-level biology class and at least one of the 300-level biology classes with significant content in neurobiology, neurophysiology or neurodevelopment (ex. Bio320 Developmental Biology, Bio333 Neurobiology, and Bio340 Sensory Biology and Neurophysiology).
Public health is a field geared toward serving others, improving people’s health and well-being, and addressing some of society’s most perplexing questions. Through É«½ç°É’s public health minor, you’ll develop and apply knowledge from multiple disciplines for the promotion and protection of human health, giving due consideration to basic principles of human rights and a wide range of cultural perspectives. The minor, like the field itself, is interdisciplinary, and you will learn about the scientific aspects of disease as well as the political and policy issues involved in improving people’s health and well-being. The minor is jointly administered by the departments of biology, kinesiology and Urban & Environmental Policy (UEP).
Student Research in the Department
Biology Facilities at É«½ç°É
Laboratory facilities in the Biology Department on the Occidental campus include the following:
DNA Sequencer (Illumina MiSeq)
Ultracentrifuge (Beckman Coulter Optima XE - equipped with 50Ti, 70Ti and SW-28 rotors)
Refrigerated Benchtop Centrifuges (Beckman Allegra 25R and Allegra X-14R)
High Speed Centrifuge (Beckman J2-HS)
Scanning Electron Microscope – benchtop (FEI Phenom)
Scanning Electron Microscope – full size (Nikon EVO)
Confocal Microscope (Leica TCS SP5)
Inverted microscope (Zeiss Axioscope)
Epifluorescence microscope (Nikon e80 - with DAPI, FITC, Cy3, and Cy5 filters; DIC)
Autoclave (full size and portable)
Imaging System (BioRad Chemidoc Touch) – for chemiluminescence and UV
Ice Maker (Hoshizaki F-450MAH)
CO2 Incubators (Shellab)
Environmental Chambers at 4C
Environmental Chambers at room temp
Biosafety Cabinets BSL-2 (Thermo Fisher 1300 Series A2)
Standing Incubator (Shellab large capacity 37C)
Shaking Incubator (Shellab SSI5)
Plate reader (BioTek Synergy LX) - with absorbance, fluorescence and luminescence filters
Plate washer (BioTek)
Real-time PCR System (BioRad CFX96)
Spectrophotometer (Beckman DU 640B)
Revco chest -80 ultralow freezers
-20ºC freezers
4ºC refrigerators
Nanopure UV water purification system
refrigerated microfuge
chemical fume hoods
ultramicrotome (LKB Ultra)
microtome (Leica RM2125)
gold sputter coater (Cressington 108auto)
critical point dryer (Quorum Technologies K850)
Dissecting Scopes (Leica)
Compound Scopes (Nikon E100 and E200, with phase contrast)