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Biology Department

The Biology Department covers the breadth of subsurface microbiology and biogeochemical cycling. Students learn the principles of microbial-enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) and biogenic methanogenesis, and gain hands-on understanding of extremophile adaptation under high-temperature, high-pressure conditions and aquifer biogeochemistry. By the time they graduate, students can put this microbiological knowledge to work directly in real-world bioremediation and enhanced-recovery settings.

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Mathematics DepartmentPhysics DepartmentChemistry DepartmentBiology DepartmentAtmospheric Sciences DepartmentStratigraphy & Sedimentology DepartmentStructural Geology & Tectonics DepartmentPetrology & Mineralogy DepartmentGeochemistry DepartmentPaleontology & Evolutionary Biology DeptRemote Sensing & Earth Observation DeptHydrogeology & Soil Science DepartmentPhysical Oceanography DepartmentMarine Geology & Geophysics DepartmentChemical Oceanography DepartmentMarine Biology & Ecology Department

Field-based Curriculum · 16

This department's curriculum is built directly on the GeoVerse Lab research fields its professors hold — click a field to see how it is taught.

Evolutionary Biology & Natural Selection
Evolutionary Biology & Natural Selection
A course on natural selection as the engine of adaptation and speciation, traini…
Alfred Russel Wallace
Genetics & Heredity
Genetics & Heredity
The foundational course on the laws of inheritance, establishing Mendel’s cross-…
Gregor Mendel
Molecular Biology & X-ray Crystallography
Molecular Biology & X-ray Crystallography
A course on solving the three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecule…
Rosalind Franklin
Cell Biology & Pathology
Cell Biology & Pathology
A course treating the cell as the fundamental unit of life and pathology, centri…
Rudolf Virchow
Microbiology & Germ Theory
Microbiology & Germ Theory
A course on germ theory establishing micro-organisms as causes of disease and fe…
Louis Pasteur
Ecology & Ecosystem Science
Ecology & Ecosystem Science
A course on ecology treating organisms and environment as one physical system, c…
Arthur Tansley
Biochemistry & Metabolism
Biochemistry & Metabolism
A course on cellular energy metabolism, centring on Krebs’s citric acid cycle an…
Hans Krebs
Virology
Virology
A course on infectious agents poised between living cells and inert chemicals, c…
Wendell Meredith Stanley
Geomicrobiology & Biogeochemical Cycling
Geomicrobiology & Biogeochemical Cycling
A course on the microbial engines of planetary elemental cycling, centring on se…
Martinus Beijerinck
Extremophile Biology & Astrobiology
Extremophile Biology & Astrobiology
A course on extremophiles that push the habitable boundaries of life, treating t…
Thomas D. Brock
Methanogenesis & Anaerobic Microbiology
Methanogenesis & Anaerobic Microbiology
A course on methanogenesis and the biology of archaea in anoxic subsurface envir…
Carl Woese
Symbiosis & Microbiome Science
Symbiosis & Microbiome Science
A course on the merging of distinct organisms as a source of evolutionary innova…
Lynn Margulis
Developmental Biology
Developmental Biology
A course on how an ordered body arises from a single cell, centring on the Spema…
Hans Spemann
Bioinformatics & Molecular Systematics
Bioinformatics & Molecular Systematics
A course on computational analysis of biological sequence data, practising bioin…
Margaret Oakley Dayhoff
Applied Petroleum & Subsurface Microbiology
Applied Petroleum & Subsurface Microbiology
An applied course on microbial engineering of petroleum reservoirs, connecting h…
Claude E. ZoBell
Immunology & Host Defense
Immunology & Host Defense
A course on the cellular basis of host defence, starting from Metchnikoff’s phag…
Élie Metchnikoff