The total number of faculty members in the departments of Biology and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry is twenty three, with forty two graduate students, five postdoctoral fellows and nine technical support staff members. New faculty members have moved quickly to establish research programs, joining their colleagues, all of whom are active in research. A Training Grant in Molecular Biophysics, awarded by the National Institutes of Health for the last ten years totaling more than one million dollars, supports graduate trainees and a range of educational activities in this area. Similar teaching and research foci exist in Developmental Biology and the Neurosciences. These are areas to which there has been a strong commitment at Wesleyan for many years and which are currently undergoing active growth and development.
Individual laboratories are well-equipped, thanks to extensive outside funding.
Above all, Wesleyan offers a supportive yet challenging environment where graduate students work closely with faculty members. The beginning graduate student is introduced to the research interests in the departments through practica in two or more labs. Also, the departments provide funds for graduate students to work during the summer at other laboratories, such as the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass., and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories in New York. Perhaps because the doctoral program is small and relatively young, faculty in the biological sciences are committed to helping graduate students achieve their best. Graduates of Wesleyan's Ph.D. program have an excellent record of obtaining first-rate academic and industrial positions.