Our overall goal is to expand and strengthen training opportunities for undergraduates at the cutting edge of our discipline. Our undergraduate education produces young scientists and citizens who understand the scope and perspective of modern biology. We support undergraduate scholarly endeavors, train students for an array of careers in research and related professional fields, and communicate the impact and significance of biology to an array of students. We offer a broad range of learning opportunities, including traditional classroom experiences, hands-on experiences in the field and the laboratory, independent study, and full student engagement in research.
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Studying Mustard Plant Evolution
Graduate student Cathy Rushworth sets up a greenhouse experiment that will compare response to simulated herbivory among sexual and asexual lineages of Boechera, a wildflower in the mustard family. Cathy's research focuses on the evolutionary and ecological factors that permit sexual and asexual reproduction to coexist in wild populations of this species. -
Good Things Come in Small Packages
Professor Kathleen Pryer and graduate student Fay-Wei Li are heading up a project to sequence the genome of Azolla, a tiny duckweed-like fern with incredible potential for carbon fixation and a source of biofuels. -
Mantis Shrimp Dining on Snails.
Rachel Crane from the Patek Lab films feeding mantis shrimp at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. She is interested in where mantis shrimp smash snails in order to fracture the shell and access food. -
Exploring Plant Diversity
Students in the 2013 offering of "Plant communities of North Carolina" at the summit of Richland Balsam just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Duke students study plant diversity throughout the state. -
Impact of Climate Change on Species Distribution
Professor Bill Morris is measuring alpine plants for a long-term study of the effects of climate change on the abundance and geographical distribution of species.
In the News
For the Love of the Game
Former Duke tennis star Prim Siripipat '03 drawn to competition as ESPN commentator
JSTOR Daily Features Maggie Wagner's Research
Maggie Wagner's work on soil microbes in Idaho has the potential to improve crop yields and address the problem of world hunger. It's a...
Upcoming Events
Mon
09
Feb
Orchestrating the score: Multimodal communication in jumping spiders
Damian Ellis
Damian Ellis, University of California-Berkeley
Mon
02
Mar
Mon
30
Mar
Do filaments just slide? Models and measurements of molecular motors in muscle
Tom Daniel
Biology Department Seminar
Undergraduate Program
Graduate Program
Duke Biology offers diverse training opportunities for students seeking a Ph.D. degree in biological sciences
Requirements for the Ph.D. include course work, participation in seminars relevant to your field of research, successful completion of an oral qualifying examination, one year of teaching experience, completion and defense of a research dissertation under faculty guidance.
Areas of Research
We conduct research in a broad range of areas: ecology (including behavioral ecology, population biology, community ecology, physiological ecology, ecosystem analysis, and biogeochemistry), functional biology at the cell and molecular level (including cellular physiology, molecular genetics, developmental biology, developmental genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics, in both plant and animal systems), functional biology at the organismal level (including comparative physiology, functional morphology, biomechanics, and animal behavior), and evolutionary biology (including population genetics, evolutionary ecology, evolutionary morphology, macroevolution, biogeography, and systematics). Many faculty research programs span multiple research areas and levels of biological organization, creating a dynamic training environment for graduate students interested in cross-disciplinary training.
