The faculty of the Biology Department are dedicated to enhancing their students’ understanding of the living world. They teach a wide variety of Biology courses, mentor students in field and lab research and serve as academic advisors. The Benedictine value of hospitality is seen in the open door policy – if you need to talk with a professor, consider an open door an invitation to drop in for a chat.

Erica Baken

macroevolution of functional morphology of salamanders and beetles, phylogenetic comparative methods development and R programming

Gordon Brown

terrestrial ecology, plant-animal interactions

Manuel Campos

human and exercise physiology, signal transduction in cells and its relation to disease

Katharine Cary

plant physiology and ecology

Philip Chu

ornithology, systematics

Clark Cotton

animal physiology, hibernation biology

Ashley Fink

microbiology, immunology

Carol Jansky

coordinator of introductory laboratories

Trevor Keyler

physiology, fish ecology

William Lamberts

aquatic ecology, phycology, plankton dynamics

Demelza Larson

quantitative genetics, cell biology of the cornea

David Mitchell

protein structure, biochemistry

Michael Reagan

molecular biology, DNA repair mechanisms

Alexa Roemmich

introductory biology, microbiology 

Jennifer Schaefer, department chair

neuroscience, electrophysiology, science of teaching and learning

Kristina Timmerman

wildlife ecology, conservation biology, plant-animal interactions

Emeritus professors:

• Jeanne Lust – developmental biology, amphibian deformities, hematology
• Stephen Saupe – plant taxonomy, secondary metabolism of plants and fungi
• Marcus Webster – physiological ecology, energetics of birds
• James Poff – entomology, behavioral ecology of social wasps
• Elizabeth Wurdak – biology of rotifers, histology, cell biology
• Larry Davis – geology, paleontology
• Charles Rodell – genetics
• Cheryl Knox – biochemistry