Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Department of Biological Sciences at University of the Sciences. It is a great pleasure to greet prospective students, current students, alumni, and friends. As I start my second year as department chair, I’d like to update you on what has been happening and what will be happening here in the department this coming year.

Last year was a very busy year—we wrapped up a search for new tenure-track faculty members in the areas of molecular biology, cell biology, and genetics. From that search, we welcome our newest faculty member, Dr. Kenneth Myers, who comes from Clare Waterman’s lab at the NIH’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda Maryland. Dr. Myers’ research will use high-resolution light microscopy to measure changes in microtubule dynamics in mammalian cells. This year our department will search for new non tenure-track faculty to join our department to support the instruction of our growing undergraduate population who major in biological sciences. As many of our alumni can attest, our formal biology courses and associated laboratories provided excellent training for their future endeavors. The high quality of this training is due, in part, to the many exceptional master teachers that we have as faculty. We will be adding to those ranks this year. We continue to provide our undergraduate students with more and diverse opportunities to do faculty-mentored research projects. Direct, hands-on involvement in research has an enormous impact on students’ intellectual development. Inquiry-based research and data analysis help all students, even if they choose not to pursue science or research after graduating. Our research-intensive faculty also provide training opportunities in our graduate programs, where students devote longer, sustained periods of time to training, learning to do cutting-edge research.

If you are a prospective undergraduate student, I encourage you to examine our learner-centered curriculum and the coursework and laboratory offerings that make it so outstanding. Pay particular attention to the course of study to major in biology, microbiology, environmental science and medical laboratory science. Also be sure to look at our integrated program in forensic science that can lead to a certificate of field specialization in forensic science. And lastly, please examine our faculty web pages to discover the breadth and depth of their interests and then the research opportunities in our faculty labs. If you are interested in becoming a new undergraduate or graduate student in our biological sciences program, please visit the application portal off of the USciences main website.

Finally, I invite all the alumni of our department to tell us where you are now and what made your education “one-of-a-kind” at USciences. Drop us an email at bio-alumni@usciences.edu. And whether you are a current student, an alumnus or a friend of our department, please visit our presence on Facebook and “like” us or leave a comment about the many events and activities that are routinely updated there.

All the best,

Peter B. Berget, PhD

Professor and Chair, Department of Biological Sciences