Department Facts

Key Allegheny Benefits

• An understanding and appreciation of scientific thought and procedures
• First-hand knowledge of modern analytical techniques and equipment used in biological research, both in the laboratory and in the field
• Critical and analytical thinking skills
• An understanding of the relationships between biology and other scientific disciplines
• An excellent foundation for graduate study in a broad variety of sub-disciplines including cellular and molecular biology, physiology, neurobiology, plant biology, microbiology, ecology, and behavioral biology.

Allegheny Distinctions

• Required individual Senior Project demonstrates to graduate schools and prospective employers the ability to complete a comprehensive independent research assignment.
• Undergraduate access to all departmental facilities and equipment.
• Accessible teaching faculty, representing a broad range of biological specialties, who actively involve students in their own research projects.
• Key departmental participant in two interdisciplinary majors: biochemistry and neuroscience.
• Several areas of emphasis - premedical, biomedical, environmental, etc.- made possible through active cooperation with the departments of chemistry and environmental science.
• Numerous opportunities for student research, with results often presented at national conferences and published in professional journals.
• Program in marine biology with Duke University and in tropical ecology in Australia and Costa Rica.

Endorsements

• "I will never forget the professors and the high quality biology and liberal arts education I received [at Allegheny]. It has enabled me to live and work effectively in a foreign country. At Allegheny, I learned how to think creatively and to apply scientific criteria to work and life situations." - Becky Ann Myton, technical advisor to the Minister of the Environment, Honduras
• National Science Foundation grant ($300,000) is funding research that could lead to new ways to control insect populations; specific grant provision made for student research assistants.
• Faculty member was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development program grant ($280,000) in support of research and education.
• National Institutes of Health grant ($98,000) is funding faculty research investigating the possible role of nasal CO2 receptors in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
• One of nation's top six institutions for consistently producing graduates earning bachelor's degree in mathematics and the sciences; in the top seven for graduating women with bachelor's degrees in math and the sciences.
• Department ranks in top 5% among private, undergraduate institutions in production of eventual Ph.D.s since 1920.
• Department recently awarded $250,000 by the Eden Hall Foundation to support instructional technology for introductory laboratories.
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have granted a $122,734 Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) to a faculty member to conduct research with students on resistance of bacteria to antibiotics.

Facilities' Strengths

Student access to all departmental facilities and equipment is the rule at Allegheny, producing research opportunities usually reserved for graduate students at other institutions.

• Steffee Hall of Life Sciences: state-of-the-art facility features combined classroom/laboratory spaces, greenhouses, darkroom, aquatics laboratory, digital imaging laboratory, and student and faculty research areas adjacent to faculty offices.
• All equipment is available for student use including: ultracentrifuge, UV-visible spectrophotometers, tissue culture facilities and equipment, optical microscopes (fluorescent, Nomarski, phase contrast, etc.), liquid scintillation counter, PCR thermacycler, ultra-low temperature freezers, electrophoresis equipment, cryostat, luminometer, gas and liquid chromatography, atomic absorption spectrophotometer.
• Bousson Environmental Research Reserve, College-owned area seven miles from campus with streams, ponds, wetlands and almost 300 acres of woodlands.
• Extensive computer and projection facilities in classrooms and laboratories are an integral part of introductory and advanced courses.
• Fully-equipped Geographic Information Systems (GIS) laboratory to analyze geographic and environmental information.

Student Research and Special Projects

Every Alleghenian completes a Senior Project in the major field - a significant piece of original work, designed by each student under the guidance of a faculty advisor, that demonstrates to employers and graduate schools the ability to complete a major assignment, to work independently, to analyze and synthesize information, and to write and speak persuasively.

Many biology majors carry out independent research or collaborative research with faculty in addition to the Senior Project.

Recent Senior Projects

• "A study of leaf processing rates in a temperate forest aquatic environment with considerations for nitrogen and condensed tannins." (Senior Project)
• "Homocysteine as a risk factor for vascular disease" (internship in the Department of Human Genetics, Allegheny-Singer Research Institute in Pittsburgh)
• "An F-Box/WD40 repeat containing protein important for Dictyostelium cell type proportioning, slug behavior and culmination." (student/faculty summer research)
• "The effect of upper airway C0₂ on ventilation in neonatal guinea pigs, rabbits, and pigs: a possible model for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome." (Senior Project)
• "The role of experience in chemosensory recognition of predators by tadpoles of the American toad, Bufo americanus." (Senior Project, presented at 1999 meeting of the Animal Behavior Society)
• "The effect of carbamate, larvin, on the survival and growth of the Xanthid Mud Crab, Rhithropanopeus harrisii" (data gathered during off-campus study at Duke University's Marine Laboratory)
• "Stable replication of HPV-18 and HPV-1a vectors for use in gene therapy" (internship in the Department of Medical Genetics and Biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh Medical School)

Student Publications and Presentations

Each year, all seniors present the results of their senior projects at the department's annual Senior Project Symposium. In addition, the results of student research projects are regularly presented at professional conferences and published in academic journals. Some examples:

• Two students recently won first prize in their divisions at the Beta Beta Beta Honor society regional conference. They were chosen to represent the Northeast Chapter of Beta Beta Beta at the national meeting, and won the national award.
• "Age-related changes in the ventilatory response to inspired CO₂ in neonatal rats: a possible role for nasal CO₂ in SIDS" (joint faculty/student presentation at Society of Neuroscience meeting)
• "Beaver pond wetlands in western Pennsylvania: an experimental analysis of aerial colonization and dessication resistance after drought" (chapter in Invertebrates in Freshwater Wetlands of North America: Ecology and Management, John Wiley & Sons, New York)
• "Aposematic coloration enhances chemosensory recognition of noxious prey in the garter snake, Thamnophis radix" (published in Animal Behavior)
• "Juvenile hormone in earwigs: roles in oogenesis, mating, and maternal behaviors" (published in Physilogical Entomolgy)
• "The significance of extracellular production and winter photosynthesis to estimates of periphyton production in a woodland stream community" (published in Hydrobiologia)
• "The effect of real and simulated herbivory on the interplant communication of an inducible defense mechanism in Nicotiana Sylvestris" (presented at Plant Signaling Conference)