The Department of Biology is composed of award-winning faculty, stimulating coursework, and inspired students who are training to answer some of our world's biggest questions. We know that hands-on experience is the key to learning, so our department is devoted to providing interactive opportunities to apply coursework in real-life, real-time settings. Our faculty enjoy international reputations, bringing their scholarship and productive research efforts into the undergraduate experience, providing opportunities for research from the introductory to advanced level that engage and challenge students and promote critical thinking skills. 

On the Cutting Edge

As a student in the biology department, you’ll work shoulder to shoulder with renowned scholars doing critical research that has real-world applications. Biology faculty are world class researchers, conducting cutting-edge research funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and other agencies and foundations. Every faculty member engages multiple undergraduates every semester in hands-on learning, challenging students to use their classroom knowledge in new contexts and promoting critical thinking skills.

Want to know about research you can get involved with at UVM?  Learn about our research on today's most pressing challenges, including human diseasesbiodiversity losses from climate change, and disease ecology. Or explore our exciting discoveries of new species of spiders, sperm wars, travel routes of ants in the 16th century, social evolution, and river dolphin communication.

Undergraduate Experience: Diverse and Rigorous

As an undergraduate in biology, you'll experience small class sizes that promote close collaborations with faculty, a rare combination in a university setting. We offer a variety of programs including biology, zoology, and environmental science, along with a myriad of electives that allow you to customize your major.

Graduate Experience: Linking Research and Education

Working in the lab

Our graduate students are mentored by world-class scientists with dynamic research groups. Faculty and students regularly present research at national and international conferences and publish original research in the best international journals. Learn about graduate education in biology.

After UVM: As a Biology Graduate

Taking notes in the research lab

"What can I do with a major from the biology department?" The quick answer is: "What can't you do?" Our majors assure that a student receives a broad, general, modern, rigorous education which prepares a student for an enormous range of careers. Our graduates enter excellent medical, dental, and veterinary schools, graduate programs and law schools. They also launch careers in business, university research and government. Explore careers and outcomes.

What sets UVM biology apart?

student sitting under a spring flowering tree on the Marsh Life green
  • We provide small-enrollment classes from the start, which is highly unusual for larger universities.
  • All courses, from introductory biology to advanced, are taught by faculty with the Ph.D. degree and many years of scientific research and teaching experience.
  • Our courses are dynamic: biology is growing (and changing!) at an ever-increasing rate. We update our classes each semester to bring the most recent, exciting findings into lectures.
  • As a UVM student, you have a passport to natural areas surrounding the city of Burlington that serve as living-research laboratories. Being a short drive away from field sites in wetlands, ponds, streams, and secondary-growth forests makes UVM an amazing place to study life sciences.