Undergraduate students planning to pursue advanced work in graduate or professional schools are advised to plan curricula to meet admission requirements for advanced study. One of the major service functions of the college is to provide course work in the sciences and mathematics for students majoring in other disciplines. Many of the college s faculty have attained national and international reputations and have received numerous honors and awards. These include National Academy of Science membership, state and national teaching awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, Fulbright Scholarships, national career development awards, National Institutes of Health Merit Awards, and an Eli Lilly Award. Faculty frequently serve on national review panels of granting agencies for instructional and research support and on editorial boards of international journals.
Many undergraduate majors conduct a senior research project under supervision of a faculty member.
This hands-on introduction to the scientific method is facilitated by the high quality of the teaching and research laboratories, computer facilities, and other infrastructure within the college. The Electron Microscopy Center, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center, Shock Physics Laboratory, Geoanalytical Laboratory, Ownbey Herbarium, Conner Zoological Museum, Hudson Biological Reserve, and Meyer s Point Biological Study Site are all facilities within the college. A strong technical services unit provides instrument shops, electronics construction and repair, graphics, and glassblowing. The college shares support and use of several university-wide facilities such as the Laboratories for Bioanalysis and Biotechnology, and the Environmental Research Center. Major research areas in the college include shock physics, molecular and atomic interactions on surfaces, continuum mechanics, avian environmental physiology, regulation of cellular growth and differentiation, genetic engineering, cytogenics, photosynthesis, mechanisms of chemical reactions, biological evolution and ecology, environmental remediation, mathematical modeling of biological and physical processes, numerical analysis, reliability and fatigue studies, resource management, protein synthesis and export, repair of DNA, biochemical mechanism of muscle contraction, chemotaxis, coevolution of plants and animals, and reproductive biology.