General Information for Prospective Students
Welcome!
The Department of Biology at Colorado State University provides outstanding opportunities for graduate training in many aspects of biology. The research and teaching interests of our faculty include fundamental problems in cell and developmental biology, ecology, epidemiology, evolution, genetics, genomics, mathematical modeling, molecular biology, physiology and systematics. Research groups focus on model and non-model animal, plant, or microbial systems, and employ experimental, analytical, functional, statistical, and computational approaches to investigate the diversity in form and function among organisms. Read more about the faculty research interests.
The Department of Biology offers M.S. and PhD degrees in Zoology and Botany. During the application process, students identify one or more preferred faculty mentors, and will often be admitted to work with a specific major professor. Alternatively, a student interested in more than one lab will be admitted and will rotate through two or more labs before selecting their major professor. Required graduate coursework is tailored to meet the specific background and research direction of each individual student. The broad training of the faculty, spanning multiple research disciplines within Biology, provides a strong interdisciplinary aspect to graduate training.
In addition to direct admission into the Department of Biology, students can also apply for graduate study through several interdisciplinary programs that focus on specific areas of inquiry, including: Cell and Molecular Biology, Ecology, Mathematics, Neurobiology and Molecular Plant Biology.
The CSU campus is located in the beautiful foothills to the Rocky Mountains. Biology faculty have working relationships with the Centers for Disease Control, the USDA Agricultural Research Service, and multiple state and national forestry and wildlife agencies. Researchers in northern Colorado interact regularly in local forums including the Plant Super Group, the Denver Area Fish and Amphibian Meeting, the Front Range Student Ecology Symposium and the Front Range Neuroscience Symposium.
Graduates of the Department of Biology have pursued careers as academic faculty at major research universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges. They are research scientists in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, investigators working at state and federal agencies, and consultants to private industry.
The highly collaborative culture of the Department facilitates interdisciplinary interactions within and among research groups. We encourage students to learn and apply a broad range of tools, skills, and perspectives important to biology today.