The Department is dedicated to the process of scientific discovery through original research. Our research, both basic and applied, contributes to state, national, and international issues. Financial and related resource support for research is sought from private and public sources. Results of research activities are made available through publication in refereed journals, presentation at professional or scholarly societies, and various other outlets. Research projects within the Department also provide for further education and training of undergraduate and graduate students for careers in biological fields.

Research Emphases

Research in our department is divided into three broad areas:

• Developmental and Regulatory Biology (DRB)
• Ecological and Evolutionary Biology (EEB)
• Science Education (SE)

Research Faculty

DRB:

• Peggy Biga, Comaparative Growth and Nutritional Physiology.
• Kendra Greenlee, Insect Physiology and Immunology
• Katie Reindl, Cell cycle regulation and cell motility in cancer
• Mark Sheridan, Animal physiology/endocrinology.

EEB:

• William Bleier, Vertebrate pest management
• Malcolm Butler, Aquatic Ecology and Invertebrate Biology.
• Mark Clark, Population Dynamics, Quantitative Ecology and Fish Ecology
• Ted Esslinger, Floristics, Taxonomy and Systematics of Lichens (Ascomycota)
• Donna Jacob, Wetlands
• Marinus Otte, Wetland ecology, biogeochemistry, ecophysiology and ecotoxicology
• Wendy Reed, Physiological and evolutionary ecology
• Craig Stockwell, Evolutionary Ecology of Native and Rare Fishes
• Steve Travers, Plant Evolutionary Ecology

SE:

• Gerald Ketterling, Science education
• Lisa Montplaisir, Science education, especially in post-secondary science classrooms

Equipment and Facilities

The Department of Biological Sciences occupies approximately 20,000 square feet of floor space in Stevens Hall for research and teaching. The NDSU Library has extensive holdings of journals, monographs, books, and other reference materials covering various fields in biology. The library offers full access to online catalogs and databases.

Faculty in the department have research programs ranging from molecular biology to ecosystem ecology and work with a wide variety of organisms (algae, lichens, angiosperms, invertebrates, and vertebrates). Modern equipment is available for conducting research in cell and molecular biology and field ecology and behavior. The department has access to a vascular plant herbarium with 240,000 specimens emphasizing Northern Great Plains flora, a lichen herbarium consisting of about 15,000 specimens with a worldwide representation of taxa, and a vertebrate collection with approximately 10,000 specimens.

The department offers access to a range of equipment and facilities necessary for laboratory research including greenhouses, animal rooms, growth chambers, tissue culture facilities, ultracentrifuges, spectrophotometers, electrophoresis, light microscopes, gas chromatography, GC-mass spectrometry, and high performance liquid chromatography. Facilities are available for protein and DNA sequencing; oligonucleotide synthesis; interactive laser cytometry; scanning transmission and electron microscopy, and confocal microscopy.

Employment Opportunities