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Biology students perform field work

Department of Biology

Austin Peay State University's Department of Biology provides an intellectual and motivational environment for career development in many areas of biology. Students can pursue training in field biology and zoology, animal and plant physiology, microbiology, and environmental assessment.

Mission Statement

To educate students to become competent, confident, and compassionate individuals within their chosen careers.  The Department of Biology faculty are committed to providing instructional and research experiences for students to develop skills of inquiry, abstract and logical thinking and critical analysis of natural science phenomena.  The Department is also committed to meeting the needs of students by providing an array of professional, pre-professional and academic tracks.

Vision Statement

The Department of Biology's vision is to prepare students for entrance into the scientific community as responsible, productive professionals, capable of effective communication in both oral and written form.

Facilities

The Department of Biology is housed in the Sundquist Science Complex.  On-campus laboratory facilities support teaching and research in such diverse areas as endocrinology, taxonomy, physiology, molecular biology, genetic engineering, aquatic biology and toxicology, cytogenetics, mycology, bacteriology, and parasitology.

The Department of Biology supports Highlands Biological Station located in Highlands, North Carolina by being a member of the HBS consortium of universities and colleges.  Undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to take courses and conduct research at the station.



Dwayne Estes speaks at Grasslands initiative

Dwayne Estes, Ph.D.

Professor of Biology

When Dr. Estes founded the Southeastern Grasslands Initiative, he wanted to lead environmental change. Now, as Tennessee’s Conservationist of the Year, he’s well on his way to restoring some of the world’s most endangered habitats.

“This initiative is an attempt to restore bits and pieces of this ecosystem that we’ve lost over the last 200 years…The explorers who described (southeastern) prairies in the 1790s, they described buffalo and prairie chickens—things we don’t have any more. You have to remember, it was originally grassland for thousands and thousands of years before we got here.”