Department of Biology : Texas State University

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Welcome to the Biology Department

Welcome to the Department of Biology at Texas State University - San Marcos. The Biology Department is a large, multidisciplinary department with many strong research programs that are well funded. We serve about 14,000 students each year in modern facilities with up to date instrumentation emphasizing inquiry-based hands-on instruction. This year Biology has about 1,000 undergraduate majors and 130 graduate (masters and Ph.D.) students.

Our goal is to attain national and international prominence through integrating undergraduate and graduate education with multidisciplinary research programs. Through our educational, scholarship, and outreach activities, the department will enhance the image of Texas State by using the life sciences to help meet the current and future needs of society in Texas, the United States, and the world.

Upcoming Events:

Summer 2013 Semester

First day of SSI classes: June 3
Final Exams SSI: July 3
First day of SSII classes: July 8
Final Exams SSII: August 8
Commencement: August 9

Faculty Meeting

August 20th

Latest News:

Ruben Tovar, M.S. graduate student in the lab of Dr. Dana Garcia was awarded the 2013 Jones-Lovich Award in Southwestern Herpetology from the Herpetologist' League. For more info, please click here.
Ruben Tovar, M.S. graduate student in the lab of Dr. Dana Garcia, was also awarded the prestigious Howard McCarley Student Research Award from the Southwestern Association of Naturalists. For more info, please click here.

Chelsea Blake, Ph.D. Student (Dr. Caitlin Gabor, advisor) and Jon Richey, M.S. Student (Dr. Gary Upchurch, Advisor) were recently awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellowships. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is highly competitive and students receive a yearly stipend of $30,000 and $12,000 for school related fees. For more information, please click here.

The Biology Student Colloquium winners are: Best Grad student talk: Jonny Riggs -Resistance of Staphylococcus epidermidis to teicoplanin in mixed culture methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus biofilms (Advisor: Dr. Gary Aron) Best undergraduate student talk: J. Dylan Hall (Undergraduate Student) Characterization of IBR5 gene function in photomorphogeneis of Arabidopsis (Advisor: Dr. Nihal Dharmasiri) Best poster: Katheryn Watson (Undergraduate Student) Relationship of vehicular traffic flow and roadside raptor and vulture populations in south central Texas (Advisor: Dr. Thomas Simpson)
Donald Brown and Ryan Luna, both doctoral students in the Department of Biology were recently recognized for outstanding achievements at the 49th Annual Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society held in Houston, Texas on 21-23 February 2013. Donald Brown was awarded the prestigious Clarence Cottam Award (1st Place) for best oral presentation. Ryan Luna was awarded the Dan Boone Memorial Scholarship.
Students and faculty of the Wildlife Program attended the 49^th meeting of the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society in Houston, 21-23 February 2013. Our students deserve congratulations for their efforts.The Wildlife Quiz Bowl team (Katheryn Watson, Madison Torres, Nicole Alonso, Casey Burch, Sam Frantzen) made it to the semi-finals, placing third out of eight teams from across the state.Eleven students gave oral or poster presentations during the meeting.Ryan Luna (Weckerly) was awarded the Dan Boone Scholarship, and Donald Brown (Forstner) won the Clarence Cottam Award competition with the best oral presentation.
The Department of Biology was well represented at the 116th Annual Texas Academy of Science meeting in Kerrville Texas on 28 February – 2 March 2013. Donald Brown and Ivana Mali were awarded 1st Place and 2nd Place, respectively, for best graduate student oral presentations. Jacquie Ferrato was awarded 3rd Place for Student Research Award Scholarship and Jacob Owen received Honorable Mention for best undergraduate poster presentation.

College of Science and Engineering

Department of Biology