Biology - major

As a biology major, you might accompany your professors on a field expedition to study seabirds in Alaska, wild eggplants in Australia, giant salamanders in Japan, or bats, bees, and lightning bugs here in Pennsylvania.

The experience you'll gain here will prepare you for your own career in research or, combined with our one-to-one pre-health advising, offer you a clear pathway to medical school.

The Department of Biology offers both a bachelor of arts requiring eight biology courses and a bachelor of science requiring nine biology courses. Students in the bachelor of arts program may choose to specialize in cellular/molecular, organismal or ecological/evolutionary biology. Both degree programs emphasize laboratory techniques and encourage students to participate in independent, faculty-guided research projects.

A five-course minor in biology is also available for undergraduate students. Graduate students may earn a master of science in biology.

See major & minor requirements
Learn more about graduate studies in biology

Bucknell’s biology department has access to the deep resources of a research-focused institution, including an imaging center with an environmental scanning electron microscope, advanced molecular biology and physiology labs that include DNA sequencing and typing capabilities, an animal behavior facility housing four species of primates, and an herbarium with 20,000 plants. And because we’re an undergraduate-focused university, all of our students have opportunities to use them all.

Each summer, a significant number of biology students spend eight to 10 weeks on campus pursuing independent research projects or offering valuable aid to professors in faculty-guided research. These students receive free on-campus housing and a living stipend during their research fellowship, allowing them the freedom to fully devote their time to investigating an area of their own interest.

Learn more about summer research at Bucknell

At Bucknell, you don't have to be a biology major to study biology. Our biology curriculum includes courses from other science and liberal arts disciplines, and our faculty are active contributors to other programs and interdisciplinary courses, research studies and activities. In addition to biology, students interested in the life sciences should explore the following areas of study:

Undergraduate Research

Bucknell University undergraduate students traveled to with biology professors Sarah Lower and Gregory Pask to western Pennsylvania to do research and scientific outreach to the general public at the annual Pennsylvania Firefly Festival.

203 Biology Bldg