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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

Students and faculty in the woods gathering data.

The Biology department offers top-notch instruction in a diverse curriculum with many opportunities for student involvement in globally significant research ranging in scale from cells to ecosystems.

In addition to traditional classroom lectures and discussion, the program in biology provides intellectual experiences in a diversity of formats such as: laboratory and field study, seminar, and research. Each experience provides the student the opportunity to develop skills in analysis, synthesis, and quantitative reasoning that have broad application in hypothesis testing, critical thinking, and interpretation.

Department of Biology
Mendel Hall Room 147 Villanova University
800 Lancaster Avenue
Villanova, PA 19085 
Tel: 610.519.4830
Fax: 610.519.7863

Chair:  Dennis Wykoff, PhD
Asst Chair:  Vikram Iyengar, PhD
Graduate Program Director: Anil Bamezai, PhD

NEWS & EVENTS

Innovative Teaching

While the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has meant that many research labs across the country are unable to continue their work, Adam Langley, PhD, ecosystem ecologist and professor of biology at Villanova University is one of the lucky ones. Dr. Langley’s outdoor research experiment, along with his willingness to adapt to the needs of his students, has made his Global Change Ecology class an impactful experience for students—despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

Prestigious NSF Grant

Troy Shirangi, PhD, received a prestigious NSF CAREER grant, awarded to early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. Dr. Shirangi studies neural circuit structure, function and development in the fruit fly. MORE...

Earning External Funding

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $480,927 grant to Alyssa Stark, PhD, assistant professor of Biology in Villanova University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to support her research on how environmental factors affect the performance, behavior and morphology of biological organisms. MORE...

Gecko Expert

Aaron Bauer, PhD—who also serves as the Gerald M. Lemole Endowed Chair in Integrative Biology at Villanova—has described more new species of reptiles than any other living scientist, including over seven percent of the more than 1,800 living geckos. "Geckos are ideal animals for asking any number of evolutionary questions. The group is at least 150 million years old and there are almost 1,800 living species," he says.

EDUCATION WITH IMPACT

 

AN EDUCATION IN THE LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES promotes intellectual curiosity and rigor; instills the fundamentals of critical insight, mature judgment and independent thinking; and strengthens students’ sense of their moral responsibility for others and for the betterment of society.