Biological Sciences
Undergraduate program
Biological sciences facilities
The Biological Sciences Department has teaching laboratories for student instruction which contain up-to-date equipment for the study of plants, animals, and microorganisms. The Department also has state of the art research laboratories for faculty and graduate students. The faculty and graduate students have access to scanning and transmission electron microscopes, scintillation counters, ultracentrifuges, spectrophotometers, as well as mainframe and microcomputers. Also available in the Department is the C.R. Hanes Herbarium, (with 26,000 plant specimens), insect, mammal and bird collections; and a greenhouse that includes a collection of living plants not native to the Michigan area, as well as research space. The campus contains a variety of cultivated and native plant species, while the Kleinstuck Nature Preserve, Asylum Lake, and a reconstructed oak savannah are located on nearby University properties. Laboratory classes frequently take field trips to the many lakes, streams, ponds, forests, wetlands and prairies of Kalamazoo and adjacent counties.
The Department of Biological Sciences has state of the art equipment, including a DNA sequencing facility, several HPLC systems, and a fluorescence imager that serves the various research laboratories.
The Biological Imaging Center has both scanning and transmission electron microscopes, as well as equipment for computerized imaging of cells. The Center supplies electron microscopy services for research projects of faculty and students within the Biological Sciences Department, several departments in the college of Arts and Sciences and other University units, as well as contract work for agencies in the community and beyond. Dr. Leonard Beuving is the director of the Center.