One of our department's goals is to involve all of our students in some type of mentored research project. All of the Biology Department faculty maintain active research programs that involve collaborations with our undergraduate students. Recent examples of student-faculty collaborative projects include investigations on the expression of genes during the development of respiratory centers in rat brainstem, the effects of habitat fragmentation on home range size of small mammals, the recognition of people by dogs using olfaction, the feeding behavior of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum, the basement membrane components of preantral follicles in the rat, and the population genetics of freshwater mussels living in rivers of northern New York. To see more faculty mentored student research projects, look at the titles and abstracts of our biology major's honors theses.

We have designed our curriculum to teach students how to conduct scientific research using modern techniques so that they are prepared to participate in a mentored research experience. In the General Biology courses, students are introduced to the process of science by designing and conducting their own research projects. Students continue to learn how to conduct research in their sophomore and junior years, through 200 and 300 level course work and/or by working in a faculty mentor's ongoing research program (see Research Training Skills). The Senior Year Experience (SYE) caps our curriculum by having students participate in experimental or tutorial research. By training students to conduct research throughout their undergraudate years, we expect seniors to apply the techniques that they have learned to conduct investigations that produce meaningful and potentially publishable results. We also expect research to be conducted with appropriate professional integrity and as a department we have adopted the research integrity policy of the Public Health Service and the Federal Office of Research Integrity. The links below connect you to information concerning the specific details of our SYE, honors research guidelines, faculty and their research interests, past biology major honors theses, and potential sources of funding for student research.

The Biology SYE

Honors Guidelines

Faculty and Their Research Interests

Past Biology Major Honors Theses

Support for Student Research Projects

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