The nationally ranked Department of Integrative Biology combines exceptional research and teaching across the fields of genetics, genomics, physiology, ecology, systematics, and evolutionary biology to address critical problems related to the environment, ecosystems, human and animal health. Approximately 40 faculty are engaged in innovative research, teaching and training in model systems, climate change, conservation, organismal biology, sustainability science and systems biology. We are renowned for our research and teaching programs in marine biology.
Our faculty conduct cutting-edge, highly interdisciplinary research and are nationally and internationally recognized for their path-breaking contributions to scientific discovery and teaching innovations. Through an active and vibrant outreach program, faculty and graduate students share their scientific discoveries and knowledge base beyond campus to the community at large.
Our 1,200 undergraduate majors benefit from excellent teaching in many aspects of biology and zoology through a varied and customizable curriculum, in addition to intensive field, laboratory and pre-professional experiences. The undergraduate program includes a flexible biology major with eight different options; minors in biology, ecology and marine biology; and a zoology major — the only one in the state of Oregon. An assortment of interactive online courses serve an ever-growing diversity of students around the globe. We are also home to unique resources, including some of the Pacific Northwest’s largest vertebrate and invertebrate research and teaching collections, including the Oregon State Arthropod Collection, the Oregon State Herpetology Collection and the J. C. Braly Natural History Collection.
The department offers MS and Ph.D. degrees in all areas of biology ranging from molecular to community levels. Graduate students have been awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships for their research on invasive plants, invertebrate ecology, ocean acidification and predator-prey interactions.
