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<H1>Graduate Program in Biology</H1>

The Biology Department of Andrews University is a community of scholars, both teachers and students, who are dedicated to academic excellence through teaching, research, and dialogue with the larger scientific community. It offers training leading to the Masters of Science degree and also participates with the School of Education in offering courses leading to the Masters of Arts in Teaching degree.

Requirements for admission to regular student status:

Graduate students apply for and receive financial aid from a number of sources. The Biology Department awards a number of $7,000 to $9,000 teaching and research assistantships for the academic year. The Graduate School also awards $5,000 Graduate Fellowships for second year graduate students. These monies are awarded on a competitive basis. Apply to the Graduate Program Director or call our toll free number (800-253-2874 (in Michigan call 800-632-2248)) for more information.

In the last three years more than 30 publications have resulted from research in student and faculty laboratories as well as from collaboration with other scientists in academia, industry and government.

Areas of Active Research

Facilities include teaching and research laboratories, a zoological museum, a botanical herbarium, greenhouses, walk-in environmental rooms, electron microscope labs and a photographic darkroom. These are conveniently located in Price Hall, the hub of a modern science complex. Specialized laboratories are available for research in tissue culture, molecular biology, immunology, neurobiology and paleobiology. In addition to on campus facilities, the department supports the Rosario Beach Marine Station. Faculty and students from colleges and universities throughout North America collaborate in classes and research at this marine laboratory located on the beautiful Puget Sound near Anacortes, Washington.

Major equipment holdings include: electron microscopes (both scanning and transmission along with all the peripheral equipment for EM), research grade microscopes with all the major optics, inverted microscopes, laminar flow hoods, computer controlled CO2 incubator, refrigerated superspeed centrifuge, polygraphs (7) micromanipulators, HPLC lasers, computers, intracellular recording instruments, electrophoresis equipment, and gene sequencers.


Graduate Faculty


Department Chair:
John F. Stout, Ph.D.

stout@andrews.edu
Dr. Stout received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Maryland. In addition to his duties as chair, Stout leads a vigorous research team and teaches Systems Physiology and Cell Physiology. His research interests in neurobiology, molecular biology and behavioral physiology have resulted in scores of papers. Professor Stout has received funding from NIH, NSF, a Humboldt Award (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. W. Germany), Max Planck Gesellschaft (W. Germany), USAFOSR, Smithsonian Institution, GRI, and A.U. Faculty Grants and collaborated with neurobiologists at the University of Cologne and the Max-Planck-Institut fŸr Verhaltensphysiologie and animal behaviorists at Oxford University. His research is currently in molecular neurobiology, cellular neurobiology, hormone physiology, and animal behavior. These research interests all relate to understanding signal recognition in the nervous system and behavioral regulation by hormones and other factors. Stout has numerous publications.

Graduate Program Director:
James L. Hayward, Ph.D.

hayward@andrews.edu
Professor Hayward received his Ph.D. in zoology from Washington State University. He teaches Genetics, Ecology, Issues in Origins and Speciation, and a course in Bioethics. Hayward has done research in the communication habitat selection and reproductive success of gulls. He developed this current research interest in the physical and chemical processes that promote eggshell and chick embryo fossilization when the gull eggs he was studying were buried and temporarily preserved by ash from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. He also studies the community ecology of various sites in Michigan and Washington. His research has been funded by grants from Sigma Xi, The American Museum of Natural History, Geoscience Research Institute, and Andrews University. Hayward's research is published in many different journals.

Gordon Atkins, Ph.D.

atkins@andrews.edu
Andrews alumnus Gordon Atkins (B.S. '81, M.S. '84)) teaches one quarter of the Foundations of Biology course, and Anatomy & Physiology, Neurobiology and Ornithology. With Dr. John Stout, Biology Department Chair, and several undergraduate and graduate students, he is attempting to understand the neural circuitry that controls the auditory behavior of crickets and the molecular mechanisms of its hormonal control. Atkins completed his Ph.D. in biology at McGill University in 1987. He then returned to Andrews as a postdoctoral fellow in Stout's laboratory, a position he held until joining the faculty. Atkins is a prolific contributor to the scientific literature.

Bill Chobotar, Ph.D.

chob@andrews.edu
Dr. Chobotar earned his Ph.D. from Utah State University. As Professor of Biology, Chobotar teaches Parasitology, Immunology, Histology, and Microbiology. His research interests focus in parasitology and immunology. Chobotar has received funding from Merck Foundation, USDA, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) and collaborated with Animal Parasitology Institute (USDA) Beltsville, MD, Auburn University, Utah State University, University of Bonn, West Germany, University of Clermont-Ferrand, France for his research on the mechanisms of pathogenesis, development and immunity in a variety of host-parasite relationships, with emphasis on the coccidia (Protozoa). Professor Chobotar's publications elucidate the biology of parasitic protozoa.

H. Thomas Goodwin, Ph.D.

goodwin@andrews.edu
Dr. Goodwin received his Ph.D in Biology with a specialty in vertebrate paleontology from the University of Kansas. His primary research interest focuses on the systematics, historical biogeography, morphological microevolution, speciation, and paleobiology of Ice Age ground-dwelling squirrels. Associate Professor of Paleobiology, he teaches a variety of courses in historical and systematic biology. Goodwin's professional presentations and publications center around small rodents of the Pleistocene.

Ralph M. Scorpio, Ph.D.


Professor of Biochemistry Metabolism and Neurochemistry, Dr. Scorpio received his Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island. He has received funding from Andrews University Faculty Grants and has demonstrated inhibition of the rate limiting enzyme in fatty acid biosynthesis by physical exercise. He is currently studying brain neurotransmitter levels in rats that might correlate with caffeine-induced alcohol appetite. His publications include:

Timothy G. Standish, Ph.D.

standish@andrews.edu

Dr. Standish earned his Ph.D. degree from George Mason University working on application of the Polymerase Chain Reaction to systematics, particularly species and strain identification. His primary research organism was Caenorhabditis elegans. A primary research interest remains the application of molecular techniques to resolving questions about classification of organisms. In addition, he has also developed research activity investigating the molecular basis of behavior in crickets. Funding for Dr. Standish's research has come from the National Science Foundation, Geoscience Research Institute, Sigma XI, and Andrews University Faculty Research Grants. Recent publications range from systematics to behavior.



David A. Steen, Ph.D.

steen@andrews.edu
As a botanist with broad interests in plant growth and development, Dr. Steen began his research by investigating the role of ethylene in shaping plant cells. This early work, done while working on his Ph.D. at Loma Linda University, resulted in cotributions to our understanding of ethylene biosynthesis and its subsequent role in altering the architecture of cortical microtubules. These developmental studies led naturally into questions that required plant tissue culture methods. Now, Steen's research focuses on factors determining the induction of somatic embryos. He has received funding from NSF, Loma Linda University, Southern College, and from AU Faculty Research Grants. His publications appear in plant physiology, tissue culture, and other botanical journals.

Dennis W. Woodland, Ph.D.

woody@andrews.edu
Woodland's Ph.D. is from Iowa State University. As Professor of Botany, he teaches courses in Systematic Botany, Plant Morphology, and Ecology. Professor WoodlandÕs research interests focus in biosystematics and phytogeography and has received funding from NCRC, Geoscience Research Institutes, Andrews University, and Ag. Canada. He has also collaborated with McGill University, The University of Mexico, The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Washington University (St. Louis) and Agriculture Canada-Ottawa for his study of the biogeography and systematics of stinging nettles (Urtica). Woodland has recently published the second edition of his Systematic Botany text, published by the Andrews University Press which now joins his other publications.

Robert Zdor, Ph.D.

zdor@andrews.edu
Dr. Zdor joined the faculty during the summer of 1991. He earned a Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Missouri in the Department of Plant Pathology and continues with his research interests in nodulating bacteria of leguminous plants. Dr. Zdor teaches Biology of Bacteria, Developmental Zoology, Molecular Genetics, and Advanced Molecular Biology. Zdor's publications describe the biology of plant roots and bacteria.


For further information, send email to any of us or call us TOLL FREE at 800-253-2874 (in Michigan call 800-632-2248) OR write:

Biology Department
Andrews University
Berrien Springs, MI 49104
Phone (616)471-3243 - Fax (616)471-6911
biology@andrews.edu