About The  Department

The JSU EXPERIENCE IN BIOLOGY

The Department of Biology at Jacksonville State University, with over 400 majors and minors with 13 faculty, provides a substantive academic foundation in the biological sciences. This foundation involves the synergistic interaction of learning in the classroom, the field, the laboratory and from the literature.

For the Biology Major, the JSU EXPERIENCE in BIOLOGY is designed:

• To acquire a real sense of the Earth's BIOPHILIA or biodiversity, with the realization that all life, especially the human species, is symbiotic with other life as well as the Earth;

• To understand and appreciate the vast body of accumulated CONTENT (knowledge) that comprises the biological sciences;

• To become familiar with the scientific PROCESS as it begins with the art of observation, asking the right scientific question or hypothesis, and seeking to either support or reject the hypothesis through experimental or descriptive research;

• To gain EXPERIENCE and SKILL in the use of traditional and modern instrumentation as tools in the scientific process;

• To grow in their ability to substain scientific literacy in the biological sciences through the systematic search, and critical analysis, of the LITERATURE;

• To enhance the critical skills of CRITICAL THINKING and PROBLEM SOLVING;

• To develop strong reading, writing and speaking skills for effective COMMUNICATION about the biological sciences;

• To ascribe to a strong sense of BIOETHICS and the role it plays in various biological and environmental issues; and

• To experience the science and art of making substantive INFORMED DECISIONS through critical thinking and problem- solving, thereby becoming a responsible and effective citizen.

The Biology Faculty are committed to excellence in teaching and research as an extension of the instructional process. Doctor McGarey received the University's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1996. Faculty also are committed to student research at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students are encouraged to join faculty in their research as well as to initiate their own projects. Doctors David Whetstone and Safaa Al-Hamdani have received the College of Arts and Sciences' Distinguished Research Award in recent years. In support of student/faculty research, the Department currently maintains a variety of specialized facilities as well as traditional and modern instrumentation.

Through undergraduate student research, the JSU Biology Major may experience the scientific process first hand, a factor that later enhances one's competitiveness in the job market and graduate study. In recent years, student/faculty research has been supported by extramural funding through the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health,NASA EPSCoR, the Alabama Environmental Council, the Department of Conservation, the Alabama Wildflower Society, the Little River Canyon National Preserve, the Forest Service, and other agencies/groups.

Biology majors are invited to join the JSU Mu Phi chapter of Beta Beta Beta, a biology organization that has been active in promoting undergraduate student research. This organization has been very active in District 2 of the national organization, especially in presenting research papers or posters during the annual meeting held in conjunction with the Association of Southeastern Biologists. Beta Beta Beta shares the Department's student library and study area in Ayers Hall. Biology majors have received 7 scholarships from Legacy, Inc, a state environmental agency, in the past 2 years, and several from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society.

The Department of Biology at Jacksonville State University invites

YOU . . . . to PARTNER with BIOLOGY for the future.

The Department has made significant progress during the past 7 years through a major curriculum change, creation of a student-friendly environment, new faculty and ideas, and improved resources--all of which has enhanced the competitive potential of our majors at graduation.

Since 1990, the faculty and students of the Department of Biology have generated over $1 million in extramural funding from such agencies as the National Science Foundation, including 5 instrumentation grants, National Institutes of Health for bacterial spore studies, NASA-EPSCoR for a satellite vegetational analysis, the National Park Service for Little River Studies, the Alabama Environmental Council for dolphin studies, as well as the Alabama Department of Conservation and Alabama Wildflower Society. The vast majority of that funding has facilitated substantive student-faculty research interactions as a function of our instructional program.

Our students now have exposure to a variety of modern instrumentation that ranges from high resolution light microscopy and image analysis, equipment to isolate and purify proteins to atomic absorption and gas chromatography for serious water quality analysis and spectrophotometry to study photosynthesis in the field. A passenger van, and research boat are now available. TheJSU Herbarium has become a major botanical resource for the Southeast.

Our students now present papers at state and regional meetings, including the Alabama Academic of Sciences and the Association of Southeastern Biologists, and such international meetings as the Botanical Society of America and the American Society of Microbiology. They have published in such international journals as the Journal of Aquatic Plant Management and the American Fern Journal. SEE Student BioINFO

Moreover, the Department has been actively associated with:

• the JSU Environmental Policy and Information Center, an arm of JSU which has been instrumental in environmental legistration;

• the Little River Canyon Field School, which has played a major role in environmental education in the Northeast Alabama community;

• the Alabama Science in Motion (Biology), which has brought modern biology to many public schools in Northeast Alabama; and

• the Anniston Museum of Natural History

Still more insight into the current Department of Biology follows on the accompanying pages of the BioHomePage. Please "surf" and discover. In fact, it is a pleasure to acknowledge that the design of this HomePage is the creation of one of our current students.

To sustain the growth and development that you see as you explore the BioHomePage, your continued interest and support of the Department of Biology will be most welcomed and appreciated. If the HomePage does stimulate your good will, please consider some of the following current needs and future visions of the Department:

• Scholarships for needy biology majors, including tuition and/or books;

• Awards for various activities, such as student presentations and student publications;

• Graduation Recognition, a graduation card appropriately designed by a JSU biology major and to honor recent and future graduates;

• A Student Research Endowment that will provide small grants to students in support their undergraduate and/or graduate research;

• The Student Research Symposium;

• A Student Travel Fund to support student presentations at professional meetings;

• A Library Biology Fund to assist Houston Cole Library in acquiring books and even journals in the biological sciences; Departmental Online Search resources, such as BIOSIS;

• Acquisition of new, and even used, Scientific Equipment

• Endowed Faculty Professorships which only enhance the educational opportunities for students; and

• A Biology Fund to support upgrades of the Department's student/faculty laboratories for Molecular Biology, Environmental Analysis, Physiological Ecology, Image Analysis, and Ecology as well as the Herbarium and Museum.

Your support not only is essential, but it is both welcomed and appreciated -- by students and faculty alike.

Should you indeed be in a position to support any the Department's current needs and/or visions for the future

. . . be a BioPARTNER.

Contact one of the following:

• the Department
• the JSU Foundation
• Dr. Frank Romano, Head
  Department of Biology

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Biology Home Page

Last Updated:  April, 2006