The Department of Biology is a thriving, diverse academic unit dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in research and teaching. We offer a core curriculum for all of the “biological sciences” taught at Western and exceptional graduate and undergraduate programs in Biology and sub disciplines. The Department, like the discipline, is diverse, offering both undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to study living systems at the level of genes and proteins to entire ecosystems.

Our faculty members are innovative researchers, conducting internationally recognized research in areas as different as the genetics of aging in mice to predicting the impacts of climate change on habitat loss, using theoretical and experimental approaches performed in state-of-the-art research facilities. There is real synergy between research and teaching as our best researchers are also in the classroom – as well, we offer many opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to actively engage in research activities in the Department.

Students in our programs acquire the knowledge, tools and skills that allow them to succeed in a wide range of careers, including research in academia, government, NGOs and industry, consultancy, medicine and law, to name a few.