Hiram Genomics Initiative Outreach Programs
During the 2006-2007 academic year, several area high schools carried out collaborative research with Hiram faculty and students as part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant. To read more about these efforts, click here.
Goodner and Wheeler win Editor's Choice Award
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has named Hiram College's Associate Professor of Biology Brad Goodner and Biology Teaching Research Assistant Cathy Wheeler winners of the 2007 MicrobeLibrary Curriculum Resource Editor's Choice Award. For full story, click here.
19th Annual
meeting of the J.J. Turner Society: March 23, 2007
This March we inducted our newest members into the J.J. Turner Society. Professor Emerita Prudence Hall was recognized this year with the J.J. Turner Award.
Hiram College and partner institutions receive $340,000 Ohio Board of Regents grant
Hiram College, with partners Kent State University and the University of Akron, have received a $340,000 grant from the Ohio Board of Regents to offer a summer academy at Hiram for outstanding high school science students and teachers. The academy scholars will study science, learning techniques and how to apply technology to sharing information and teaching. The project, titled "Igniting Streams of Learning in Science," is led by Professor of Biology Dennis Taylor. For full story, click here.
Hiram College awarded grant from Ohio EPA Education Fund
Hiram College has been awarded a $46,044 grant by the Ohio EPA Office of Environmental Education to produce multi-media training for the testing of the headwaters of Ohio streams. The project is led by Professor of Biology Dennis Taylor. Valerian Anderson, Hiram's director of the Center for Educational Technology, will provide support using the college's Sakai open-source software system. For full story, click here.
The biology program at Hiram College provides students with the knowledge and experience to become professional biologists. With our emphasis on experiential learning and hands-on applications, coupled with close faculty mentoring relationships, Hiram’s biology students develop the expertise to succeed in graduate programs and professional work environments in the modern life sciences.
The hallmark of Hiram’s biology program is our emphasis on research. Every biology student is required to complete a senior project in an area of his/her interest and expertise. This project may be conducted in coordination with a faculty member’s research, or it may be an independent research project executed with faculty direction. The project may also be an off-campus internship that involves research in a laboratory or at a field site. In addition, students may choose to shadow a professional in a clinical setting, intern as a naturalist at a park or nature preserve, or work in animal or plant care with a zoological or botanical garden. To enable our students to explore virtually limitless research areas, Hiram’s biology department sustains a faculty with a broad scope of expertise, ranging from paleontology to ecology, marine biology to genetics, animal behavior to plant systematics.
HANDS-ON LEARNING
At Hiram, our biology students have the opportunity to develop the knowledge and research techniques essential to professional biologists from their first year in the program. Faculty members are readily accessible and encourage students to participate in ongoing faculty research projects. Research experiences are also incorporated in the biology curriculum as a component of regular coursework. Hiram biology students are currently involved in a number of projects, including the following:
Working with Professor Denny Taylor on wetlands and streams as part of the Hiram-Ohio EPA Biodiversity Initiative
Working with Associate Professor Brad Goodner on the genomes of three species of soil bacteria as part of the Hiram Genomics Initiative
Working with Associate Professor Kim Phillips on foraging strategies in capuchin monkeys
Working in Associate Professor Sandy Madar’s lab to identify new turtle species from 50 million year old fossil material
Because of our department’s focus on research and internship experiences, Hiram biology students have a unique degree of access to professional science organizations. Our students are active participants in regional and national meetings of life science associations, and they have opportunities to publish in scholarly journals. Whether your goal is graduate school or a professional environment, Hiram’s biology curriculum provides students with the knowledge and hands-on experience to enable success.
Download the Biology program description in pdf format.
Contact Information
Vicki Kohn, Administrative Assistant
Gerstacker Hall
phone: 330-569-5264
fax: 330-569-5448
Photo by Megan Taylor ('08): Marine Ecology course during Fall 3 week, 2007.