The Department of Biology Faculty, Staff & Students

Faculty and Postgraduates. The Washington University Department of Biology has approximately 30 full-time faculty members, including seven assistant professors hired within the last two years, several AAAS Fellows, and several members of the National Academy of Sciences. All of our faculty have peer-reviewed grant support (now totaling over $12 million each year) and many hold leadership positions in the scientific community, serving on editorial boards of major scientific journals, serving on NIH or NSF panels, and organizing national and international meetings. One indication of the breadth of interests in our department is that our faculty are affiliated with 11 of the 13 Ph.D. training programs of the Division (see http://dbbs.wustl.edu), and our approximately 75 current pre-doctoral students are members of eleven different programs. This breadth is also reflected in the interests of the approximately 50 postdoctoral fellows now in the department.

Staff. The Biology Department depends on the many staff members who provide administrative and grant support, building maintenance, facilities management, human resources, accounting, computing support, science education and outreach.

Undergraduate Students. In 2008, there were 911 entering undergraduates in Arts and Sciences; 406 of these entering undergraduates expressed strong interest in biology and/or pre-medicine. An extraordinary number (more than 75%) of our undergraduates participate in research before graduation. In addition, many of our undergraduate Biology majors have a strong interest in medicine. Over the last 6 years, 72% of the Biology majors who applied to medical school were accepted (compared to the 45% national acceptance rate of Biology majors into medical school during the same period).