What has been going on in our department...

Images from Costa Rica, January 2012

Our J-term study abroad course is currently in Costa Rica.  Below are some images of students and locations, including one of an endangered tapir.  You can see more pictures, video, abstracts of sudent research projects, and read some essays from students in this course by visiting our blog, Biophilia (click on the link in the right-hand column).

 

Students doing statistics in San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Corey and Liz in a tree along the Sirena River in Corcovado National Park, Osa Pennisula, Costa Rica

 

  

High elevation rainforest, Cerro de la Muerte, Costa Rica (L)
Tapir in surf of Pacific Ocean, Corcovado National Park (R)

 

Photo Galleries

• Fall 2011
• Spring 2011
• Fall 2010
•  To see the Fall Photo Gallery archive as a slide show on Flickr, click here
  

 

A Welcome Note from our Chair

Our faculty and staff are dedicated to providing students with a creative, engaging, and flexible program of study that stimulates their intellectual curiosity, prepares them for rewarding careers in a wide range of professions, and encourages them to employ their scientific knowledge in ways that serve the common good of humanity and that respect the diversity of life on our planet. We are large enough to offer variety and quality in both the courses we teach and the research opportunities we provide, but we are small enough to give our students the individual attention they deserve throughout their entire undergraduate career.

We hope you will explore our website and learn more about what we have to offer. Please do not hesitate to contact me (t.lewis@stthomas.edu) if you would more information about us. If you would like to see our facilities or to meet with me personally, our Admissions office would be glad to arrange a visit.

Tim Lewis, Chair

 

During the 1940s and 1950s, McClintock discovered transposition and used it to show how genes are responsible for turning physical characteristics on or off. His 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. Katherine, a Goldwater Scholarship winner, worked in Dr. Adam Kay's lab on how the nutrient phosphorus affects life history characteristics of freshwater snails. Beth is now in graduate school in the Biosciences Department at the University of Iowa.  She conducted research in Dr. Jayna Ditty's lab since her first year at UST. His experiments confirmed the germ theory of disease, and he created the first vaccine for rabies. During his lifetime van Leeuwenhoek ground over 500 optical lenses. He also created over 400 different types of microscopes, only nine of which still exist today. Fossey"s book, Gorillas in the Mist, was praised by Nikolaas Tinbergen who was a Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her book remains the best selling book about gorillas of all time.

Albert is one of only 15 undergraduate researchers to get an award from the Society of Plant Biologists.
 

Nick will spend 10 months studying HIV in Sweden. Taylor is a 2010 graduate and will be doing research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research center in Panama summer of 2010.