We offer courses for students with career interests in biology, and for students who are not majoring in science but who wish to study modern biology as part of a liberal arts education.
This summer, the National Science Foundation awarded Jeong a three-year, $462,395 grant to support her experiments on “iron homeostasis,” or how molecular iron is stored and transported within plant cells. Currently, more than 30 percent of the world’s population suffers from iron deficiency and relies on plant-based diets that are iron-poor. One answer to this problem is biofortification, or breeding more robust crops that have more of the nutrients that humans need. Read More
Amherst College Biology graduate Annie Apffel '17, who now works at the Broad Institute in Boston, was interviewed recently about her new position and experiences in science. A link to the interview appears below:
Biology Honors thesis student Sarah Nessen '18 in the Purdy lab presented the sole talk by an undergraduate student, and BCBP Honors thesis student Itai Muzhingi '18 won an award for his poster presentation.
Sarah Nessen ’18, a senior at Amherst double-majoring in Biology and French while pursuing an honors thesis in the Purdy lab, has won a $500 travel grant from the American Society for Microbiology to present a talk on her senior thesis work at the ASM Conference on Vibrio: The Biology of Vibrios in November 2017.
Amherst Biology majors study introductory biology, chemistry and physics, and then have a wide choice of upper-level biology courses.
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Honors majors devote half of their academic effort during senior year to research. The resulting thesis is often the basis of their first scientific publication.
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Students have many opportunities to join active research labs over the summer.
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Students and faculty gather weekly to hear and take part in presentations on biology research.
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We have a great track record of sending students to the best graduate and professional schools in the country.
Learn moreExplore the vast range of plant diversity, form and function, and anatomy, and conduct genetic, biochemical and physiological studies in laboratory work.
Consider the detailed balance sheet that shows how living things harvest energy from their environment to fuel metabolic processes, reproduce and grow.
Study bio-molecules, cellular substructures, and control mechanisms that work effectively in the microscopic world, and explore new technologies, such as atomic force and single molecule microscopy.
Each year we award a number of prizes to students. We solicit proposals every April.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded Professor Michael Hood a $444,651 grant to investigate the problem of chromosome degeneration.
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