Through a combination of formal coursework, laboratory courses, field courses, and research projects with faculty, our students explore biological complexity from the inner working of cells to ecosystems. Moreover, our students are introduced to the pressing questions that remain in the life sciences and are exposed to the ways that scientists at Sewanee and beyond are working to address these questions.

Our Majors

The biology department offers a major in biology for which students select from of the three tracks: 

The biology department also offers, in collaboration with the psychology department, a major in Neuroscience and, in collaboration with the chemistry department, a major in Biochemistry.

Opportunities for Students

Students have the opportunity to study away with the Island Ecology program and a variety of other environmental study away programs.

Students who are interested in the health sciences often major in biology and work with the Office of Medical and Health Programs to earn practical experience via internships and civic engagement opportunities.

Students who are interested in a career in research are encouraged to get involved in student-faculty research and to consider working full-time on research projects in the summer with undergraduate research fellowships offered through the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship.

MBG1 MBG2 ib3 MBG3 eab1 eab2 eab3 ib1 IB2 ib4

A sampling of courses

What students research

AMPHIBIAN ECOLOGY

Kristen Cecala studies the patterns and processes contributing to changing amphibian distributions in the face of landscape changes including land-use and climate change. She is specifically interested in linking observational and manipulative experiments to explore mechanisms of change. Her research also contributes toward development of comprehensive management strategies for freshwater ecosystems.

NEUROSCIENCE

The lab is broadly interested in the molecular basis of behavior, and uncovering details of the mechanisms of activation of ion channels, especially at the single channel level. Professor Shelley's lab uses sea urchins as an experimental organism, with the aim of elucidating the electrical and biochemical steps that underlie sea urchin behavioral responses to light.

PROTEIN FOLDING

Elise Kikis studies the aberrant proteins that underlie neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease. Huntington’s disease is one of several autosomal dominant disorders in which a polyglutamine (polyQ) expansion leads to “toxic gain of function” caused by the adoption of a misfolded or aggregated state associated with proteotoxicity. Contact her for more information about research opportunities in her laboratory.

PLANT ECOLOGY / CONSERVATION BIOLOGY

Jon Evans studies the dynamics of plant populations and the processes that determine the composition and structure of plant communities over time and across landscapes. He is specifically interested in the role of clonal growth as a mechanism for population persistence in plant communities. As a conservation biologist, he studies the consequences of land-use history, global climate change, and exotic species introductions on long-term change in ecological communities.

VIROLOGY

Viruses infect all cellular life; they are everywhere. Here at Sewanee we are interested in coronaviruses (CoV), which include the deadly human pathogens SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. In order to understand more about these human coronaviruses, we use a murine coronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), as a model system.

Nature vs. Nurture

A Sewanee biology professor and her students look to shed new light on an age-old debate—by scaring some tiny fish. Behind an unmarked door on the ground floor of Woods Labs, Katie McGhee is studying tiny fish from Lake Cheston as she seeks to tease out clues to one of the great puzzles of human life. It’s a question that has vexed everyone from philosophers and criminologists to biologists and theologians: What makes us the way we are? Nature or nurture?

Biology

Programs of Study

Students select one of three major tracks in biology:

Requirements for the Minor in Biology

Requirements for the Major and Minor in Biochemistry

Requirements for the Major and Minor in Neuroscience 

Meet some professors

Teaching at the University of the South

Assistant Professor of Neurobiology

The Biology Department at The University of the South seeks a Ph.D-trained biologist with experience in neuroscience to serve as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Biology starting in August 2025. This position will be housed in the Biology Department and will contribute to the biology major and the interdisciplinary neuroscience major.


Contact

elise a. kikis
Chair and Associate Professor of Biology

eakikis@sewanee.edu

Spencer Hall 167A, Ext. 1747

Connecting the Dots