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New Neurobiology and Biology of Global Health Majors Expand Science Offerings

By Katherine Morrissey

This spring, biology students at Georgetown University will have two new paths of study available to them. Along with Georgetown’s traditional, comprehensive Biology major, students will be able to graduate with degrees in Neurobiology and the Biology of Global Health. The department is also currently finalizing plans to add both Environmental and Quantitative Biology majors to the roster within the next two years.

Efforts to provide additional layers of specialization to students were first initiated at an annual Department of Biology retreat nearly five years ago. Faculty and staff recognized that students were specializing their studies independently, drawing on Georgetown’s community-wide strengths—particularly in the areas of Global Health and Neurobiology—to craft their own fields of study.

“We felt a strong need to support the students in their pursuits,” says Dr. Heidi Elmendorf, associate professor of biology and director of science planning for Georgetown College, “but also the need to provide them with a structure for their studies. By identifying the different paths that are available, we’re able to represent the diversity and richness within modern biology but also make sure that students receive a comprehensive, rigorous education within the different areas of the field.”

The new plan for the department requires all students to begin their studies together, focusing on the fundamentals of biology, developing the groundwork, and surveying the different paths available to them. In this way, students will be introduced to different specialty areas in biology and to the different faculty within the Department of Biology and their areas of interest.

“This new program allows students to connect with mentors early on,” explains Dr. Elmendorf. “We want them to be able to ask questions, explore their options, and know who they can go to for assistance.”

Once students get a sense of the basics, they have the option of either studying biology as a whole or specializing within these key areas, depending on their own individual interests. The new Biology of Global Health major will focus on the wide range of biology fields impacting global health (from ecology to biochemistry). It will also draw on the rich variety of global health research on infectious and genetic diseases taking place across the Georgetown community. This will provide students with important insights into the larger social, political, and economic forces shaping global health work and the scientific community.

As knowledge about the interaction between genetics and brain functioning grows, neuroscience has emerged as an important and rapidly growing area of interest within biology, an area of research in which Georgetown is particularly strong. The Neurobiology major highlights that research focus and connects interested students to faculty members directly.

The department also hopes to offer new majors in Environmental Biology and Quantitative Biology, the development of which is in the planning stages. Biology Professor Phil Sze is particularly excited about the Environmental Biology major because of its unique, biology (not policy) centered approach.

“Many colleges and universities offer environmental studies or policy majors, but our plan is a bit different,” explains Dr. Sze. “Focusing on environmental biology specifically allows us to concentrate on the science happening in this area of work and the research techniques students will need to pursue their own questions.”

The final major being developed, Quantitative Biology, will focus on quantitative approaches to biology research, engaging with the extensive and evolving use of numerical data and calculations to create models for researchers. The department hopes to make this a highly interdisciplinary major, drawing upon the skills of the Department of Mathematics's statistics program in particular.

“Overall, these new majors all reflect the realities of modern biology,” says Dr. Sze. “Biology today is a vast, complicated field of science. We study life, but life takes so many forms! Given the current innovations in genetics, medicine, and field research, and our increasing awareness about complexity and connection within all these areas, it is important that we remain current, remain responsive to student interests, and also ensure that our students leave with a comprehensive understanding of these different areas of interest.”

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