Last year the College established the School of Life Sciences (SLS) to encompass a broad range of interdisciplinary sciences that lie between biology and medicine. The new School is composed of the departments of Integrative Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry & Biophysics. At the forefront of interdisciplinary research and teaching, SLS seeks to stimulate scientific discovery and to address critical societal problems in the life sciences.
This change aligns with OSU’s strategic reorganization that began in 2010.
With its newly defined profile, the School of Life Sciences is on an exciting new trajectory with cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research involving the scientific study of living organisms. While biology is the lynchpin of the life sciences, microbiology as well as biochemistry and biophysics enhance the increasingly interdisciplinary research of the field.
This reorganization enables the School to lead, promote and grow the instructional and research success of the basic life sciences. Other benefits include streamlining faculty hires, research clusters and research facilities as well as tightly integrating the undergraduate and graduate curriculum across the life sciences.
The School of Life Sciences (SLS) has the largest number of undergraduate majors in the College, with more than 2,300 majors and 100 graduate students. By redistributing significant numbers of students across each department, students will have easier access to pre-health advising, seamless transitions between professional and faculty advisors and increased opportunities to engage in experiential learning by directly interacting with faculty.
