Summer 2024 Ecology of Northern California field course, San Francisco
WCU Biology undergrad and graduate students in San Francisco for the summer Ecology of Northern California field course.
Ecology of Northern California summer field course students at Muir Overlook coastal bluffs.
Students from the Spring 2023 Microbial Physiology Course.
Members of the Biology Department before the first faculty meeting of Fall 2022.
Ecology and Conservation Concentration students learned from WCU Alum Brittney Semone about field jobs in ecology. Thanks to Brittney for the amazing advice and perspective!
WCU Biology students Janelle Pedroza, Matt Fuchs, Barbara Bowen, and Miranda Davies collect stream sediment, water, and macroinvertebrates with Dr. Fork at Plum Run in West Chester.
WCU Biology students at the La Paz waterfall in Costa Rica, while on a study abroad field course.
Undergraduates in the Chandler lab (Matt Desko, Samantha Silverman, Jessica Bickel, and Carolyne Schiebel) spent their summer in the woods collecting forest composition and structure data for a spotted lanternfly study.
WCU Biology students learning about natural lands management at Delaware’s Mount Cuba Center.
WCU Biology students at Fuerte Caprón in Puerto Rico’s Guánica Dry Forest during a field course.
Student Development Calendar
09/30 - Is biology grad school right for you?; Master’s vs. PhD programs
Is biology grad school right for you?; Master’s vs. PhD programs
Program: Biology Grad School 101: Navigate Your Next Steps
Date: 09/30/2024
Time: 5:00pm
Location: MER 112
Facilitators: Dr. Ben Chambers and Dr. Jenny Uehling
10/28 - Different routes to grad school; How to get effective research experience
Different routes to grad school; How to get effective research experience
Program: Biology Grad School 101: Navigate Your Next Steps
Date: 10/28/2024
Time: 5:00pm
Location: MER 109
Facilitators: Dr. Ben Chambers and Dr. Jenny Uehling
11/18 - Identifying grad programs of interest; Inquiry emails
Identifying grad programs of interest; Inquiry emails
Program: Biology Grad School 101: Navigate Your Next Steps
Date: 11/18/2024
Time: 5:00pm
Location: MER 109
Facilitators: Dr. Ben Chambers and Dr. Jenny Uehling
Full Schedule
Is biology grad school right for you?; Master’s vs. PhD programs
Program: Biology Grad School 101: Navigate Your Next Steps
Date: 09/30/2024
Time: 5:00pm
Location: MER 112
Facilitators: Dr. Ben Chambers and Dr. Jenny Uehling
Different routes to grad school; How to get effective research experience
Program: Biology Grad School 101: Navigate Your Next Steps
Date: 10/28/2024
Time: 5:00pm
Location: MER 109
Facilitators: Dr. Ben Chambers and Dr. Jenny Uehling
Identifying grad programs of interest; Inquiry emails
Program: Biology Grad School 101: Navigate Your Next Steps
Date: 11/18/2024
Time: 5:00pm
Location: MER 109
Facilitators: Dr. Ben Chambers and Dr. Jenny Uehling
Requirements to apply for grad school; Tips for GRE tests, Rec Letters, CVs & Resumes
Program: Biology Grad School 101: Navigate Your Next Steps
Date: 02/24/2025
Time: 5:00pm
Location: SCN 192
Facilitators: Dr. Ben Chambers and Dr. Jenny Uehling
Feedback on CVs & Resumes;
Tips for Personal & Research Statements
Program: Biology Grad School 101: Navigate Your Next Steps
Date: 03/24/2025
Time: 5:00pm
Location: SCN 192
Facilitators: Dr. Ben Chambers and Dr. Jenny Uehling
Feedback on Personal & Research Statements; Interview prep suggestions
Program: Biology Grad School 101: Navigate Your Next Steps
Date: 04/28/2025
Time: 5:00pm
Location: SCN 192
Facilitators: Dr. Ben Chambers and Dr. Jenny Uehling
News
2024 Highlights
Dr. Frank Fish, Biology, presented a keynote talk titled, “ Whales to Windmills” for Engineering Tomorrow apart of their Lab Day Event on Renewable Energy: Building Solar & Wind Systems (November 13, 2024). Engineering Tomorrow is a nonprofit educational group that offers interactive virtual engineering labs to schools, teachers, and high school students. From schools around the country, 2,458 students attended the presentation live, and 7,265 students registered to receive a recording of the presentation.
Dr. Oné Págan published the following paper: Ruble M, Simpson N, Smith B, Adeshina W, Snyder E, Pagán OR. Cotinine influences the effect of high and low nicotine concentrations on planarian motility differently. Neurosci Lett. 2024 Oct 15;841:137955. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2024.137955.
Dr. Oné Págan published the following paper: Kakuturu J, O'Brien M, Pagán OR. Schild Analysis of the Interaction between Parthenolide and Cocaine Suggests an Allosteric Relationship for Their Effects on Planarian Motility. Biomolecules. 2024 Sep 18;14(9):1168. doi: 10.3390/biom14091168.
Dr. Oné Págan published the following paper: Pagán OR. The complexities of ligand/receptor interactions: Exploring the role of molecular vibrations and quantum tunnelling. Bioessays. 2024 May;46(5):e2300195. doi: 10.1002/bies.202300195.
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, was a co-author on a paper, Robots that evolve on demand, that was published on-line in Nature Reviews Materials (2024), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00711-z. The paper was co-authored with Dr. Rebecca Kramer-Botttiglio of Yale University.
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, received a three-year grant from the Office of Naval Research on “Towards a Deep Water Amphibious Robotic Turtle” that is in collaboration with Yale University.
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, received a three-year grant from the Office of Naval Research on “Unmanned Biorobotic Systems in High Energy Environments: Biologic To Robotic Navigation Through, and Transitions From, The Littoral Zone. This grant is in collaboration with George Washington University and Drexel University.
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, co-authored an invited presentation “Locomotion and transitions of an amphibious system: Biologic to robotic” at the ONR Bio-Inspired Autonomous Systems Review, May 22-24, 2024 at George Washington University, Washington, DC. The presentation was co-authored with Dr. Megan Leftwich of George Washington University and Drs. James Tangorra and Harry Kwatny of Drexel University.
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, co-authored an invited presentation “Autonomous environmental transitions of an amphibious turtle inspired robot” at the ONR Bio-Inspired Autonomous Systems Review, May 22-24, 2024 at George Washington University, Washington, DC. The presentation was co-authored with Dr. Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio of Yale University.
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, received a grant from the Office of Naval Research for $379,961 to work on the biomechanics of sea turtles and tortoises for the development of an amphibious bio-robotic autonomous underwater vehicle with Yale University.
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, received a grant from the Office of Naval Research for $299,962 to work on the biomechanics of sea lions and other pinnipeds for the development of an amphibious bio-robotic autonomous underwater vehicle with George Washington University and Drexel University.
Dr. Manu Ramalho recently appeared on the Matters Microbial podcast, episode #32, discussing "What's bugging ants, microbially speaking?" You can listen to the episode here: https://www.microbe.tv/mm/mm-032/
Biology graduate student Amanda Munshower won third place in the Graduate Poster Presentations category at the Mid-Atlantic Ecological Society of America Conference for her research titled "Evolving Partnerships: A Multi-Stage Analysis of Host-Microbe Dynamics in the Life Cycle of the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula)." The presentation was co-authored by Dr. Manu Ramalho, Dr. Jennifer Chandler, and Dr. Teresa Donze-Reiner. Go Team!
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, co-authored a published research paper, “Diving dinosaurs? Caveats on the use of bone compactness and pFDA for inferring lifestyle” in PloS ONE 19(3): e0298957 (2024). [https://doi.org/10.1371/](https://doi.org/10.1371/) journal.pone.0298957 . The article was co-authored with Dr. Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and Dr. Donald Henderson of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
David A. Kramer (Biology graduate student) published the scientific research paper, “Thrust production and chordal flexion of the flukes of bottlenose dolphins performing tail stands at different efforts” in the Journal of Experimental Biology 227: jeb246228 (2024). The paper was co-authored with Dr. Maura Sheehan (Health, emerita) and Dr. Frank Fish (Biology).
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, presented a guest lecture “Control surfaces of marine mammals” to the Functional Anatomy class in the Biology Department of Texas A&M university, Corpus Christi on February 23, 2024.
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, published the research article, Spin-leap performance by cetaceans is influenced by moment of inertia.,” in the _Journal of Experimental Biology_ vol. 227: jeb 246433 (2024). The article was co-authored with Dr. Anthony Nicastro, Physics Emeritus, Kaitlyn Cardenas, former WCU biology undergraduate, Dr. William Gough, former WCU graduate student, Dr. Judy St. Leger of SeaWorld, and Drs. Paolo Segre, Shirel Kahane-Rapport, and Jeremy Goldbogen of the Hopkins Marine Lab of Stanford University.
Dr. Frank Fish, biology, presented an invited seminar, “Creation of Innovative Technologies Based on Bio-Inspired Designs from Marine Animals” to aerodynamics students in the University of Washington Aeronautics and Astronautics Department on January 3, 2024.
Dr. Manu Ramalho and other collaborators have published a new paper on Wolbachia and turtle ants! Check out the paper here: https://doi.org/10.3390/biology13020121
Mission Statement
The primary mission of the Department of Biology, including its faculty, staff, and administrators, is to provide a high quality educational experience to both undergraduate and graduate students. This is achieved by maintaining small class sizes staffed by full-time faculty. Many of the courses have a laboratory component, facilitating participatory learning. An integrated core curriculum is intended to strengthen the written and verbal communication, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and problem-solving skills of all biology majors. As a responsibility of a future scientist, the role of ethics and diversity in science is also discussed in courses as warranted. Several focused concentrations within the undergraduate curriculum offer options of either specializing for immediate employment upon graduation or preparing for postgraduate education. An important role of the Faculty is to advise students in coursework to ensure progress towards a degree and their future careers with the aim for the students to become lifelong learners.
Masters students receive training as biological scientists primarily for career advancement. Although most students come from the Delaware Valley region, their educational experience is intended to equip them for careers anywhere. Biology majors are required to perform independent projects in many courses, and are encouraged to work closely with faculty in collaborative research. The combination of unusually broad course selection and individual attention allows students from very diverse backgrounds to excel within the program. A part of the department's mission is to participate in the process of scientific inquiry.
The department expects its faculty to engage in scholarly activity, and encourages research publication and the acquisition of extramural funding. Scholarship enhances the stature of the Department and University, integrates advancements into the teaching and mentoring, and helps to secure technologically up-to-date laboratory equipment. The department's research environment also provides an ongoing framework into which graduate and undergraduate student research projects can be incorporated into their education. Students may also gain experience and credit through off-campus internships. Both of these opportunities provide real lab experience for students allowing many Biology Department graduates to further their career goals.
The Department serves the University by supporting the principles of academic integrity and responsibility in coursework in Biology and other disciplines, principally in Nursing, Health, Kinesiology and the Forensic and Toxicological Chemistry program, and is actively involved in maintaining the high quality of the Preprofessional Program. The department is working closely with the School of Education in training Secondary school biology teachers, and is strengthening ties with other departments in environmental science. Department faculty serve the community as consultants to government, non-profit organizations, other schools and industry.
Facilities
The Department of Biology occupies ~37,000 ft2 of classroom, office, and research space in Merion Hall and the adjacent Science Complex. The Biology wing of the Science Complex has undergone a complete renovation and was re-opened in time for the Spring 2004 semester. Teaching and research laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. The equipment available to students includes a single-side band microscope (the world's second), fluorescence microscopes, apparatus for video microscopy, cryostat, tissue culture equipment, liquid scintillation counter, gamma ray counter, patch clamping equipment, ion suppression chromatograph, and scanning and transmission electron microscopes. A fully equipped molecular biology laboratory, funded by the NSF includes equipment for RFLP, PCR, DNA sequencing, and in situ capabilities. Additionally, the department has field inversion electrophoresis equipment for DNA analysis.
Other facilities include: research and teaching greenhouses, a biosafety level 3 facility, a student computer laboratory with full multimedia capabilities, a GIS computer laboratory with a GPS first order community base station and mobile GPS units, the Robert B. Gordon Natural Area for Environmental Studies, the William Darlington Herbarium, the B. Harry Warren Ornithological Collection, and the largest collection of halophilic bacteria in North America.
The Robert B. Gordon Natural Area for Environmental Studies consists of about 120 acres of woodland, old field, and wetland habitat located on the university's South Campus. Dedicated in 1973, the area was named for Robert B. Gordon, faculty member and chair of West Chester University's Department of Science from 1938-1963.
The William Darlington Herbarium (DWC) is the second oldest collection of preserved plant specimens in the United States. The collection is a highly regarded historical collection of specimens dated primarily from 1815 to 1860. Among the more than 20,000 specimens are those collected by such famous explores as Captain John Freemont, Thomas Nuttall, Sir William Hooker, C.S. Rafinesque, and George Englemann. The herbarium was started by Dr. William Darlington, a prominent West Chester physician, educator, banker, historian and botanist.
The B. Harry Warren Ornithological Collection contains approximately 2000 bird specimens dating back to the late 1800's
Research and Internships
Several options exist for undergraduate Biology students interested in pursuing research and/or external internships for credit. Students interested in these opportunities can find more information here.
Are you looking for a Summer Research Internship in STEM? Start here!
Biology Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Suggestion Box and Help Tool: Follow this link to drop a note in our online suggestion box, get more information about the Biology department DEI committee, or connect to resources that can help solve problems.
Research Opportunities
Plastic Pollution On Campus and in Local Streams
The Aquatic Ecosystems Lab at WCU is seeking at least four undergraduate students to participate in a study about plastic pollution on campus and in local streams, beginning August 2023. Interested students should schedule a meeting during Dr. Fork's office hours to discuss the project and their questions. More information at https://aquaticecosystemswcu.weebly.com/opportunities.html
More Opportunities
For more information, please see the Biology Faculty Research page.
You can also view the faculty research slideshow for more information on ongoing faculty research.
Contact Information
- Dr. Chandler, Department Chair
610-436-1023 - Dr. Maresh, Assistant Chair
610-436-2318 - Dr. Turner, Graduate Coordinator
610-436-3009 - Melissa Griffin, Administrative Assistant
610-436-2538
The Department of Biology office is located in Room 175 on the first floor of Science North.
Faculty office hours for Fall 2024 .
Recent Alumni
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"I graduated from West Chester University in the Spring of 2024 with a BS in Biology with an Ecology and Conservation Concentration, and a minor in Geography. "
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"I graduated from West Chester University in Spring of 2020 with a BS in Cellular Molecular Biology and minors in Chemistry, Psychology, and History."
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"I graduated from West Chester University in the Spring of 2021 with a B.S. in Biology with a Cellular and Molecular concentration."
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"I graduated from West Chester University in 2021 with a B.S. in Biology (Cell and Molecular Biology) and Science Education minor."
