Department of Biology

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Mission

The Department of Biology at Lipscomb University seeks to intentionally educate, mentor, and prepare students for careers in the life and health sciences while stimulating curiosity, critical thinking, and appreciation for the diversity and complexity of living organisms.

Distinctives of the Biology Department

The department is housed within a fully-equipped facility offering a wide range of courses and hands-on laboratory experiences. Our students are encouraged to participate in both basic science research and clinical research. Tangibly, this is done through working with our research faculty in tandem with the Langford-Yates Fellowship and J.S. Ward Society Fellowships. With the Langford-Yates Fellowship, our students are mentored by research faculty to engage in independent research during the summer. Through the J.S. Ward Society Fellowship, our students have the ability to work with research faculty at both Vanderbilt University and Meharry Medical School.

Our department contains world-class faculty that have won awards for teaching, mentorship, and research. Indeed, our faculty all have advanced degrees, and in contrast to other schools, our anatomy courses are taught by licensed clinicians including a MD and DPT (the only college in the state with clinicians in this role).  Collectively, our faculty have published in journals including: Immunity, Gut, Cell Metabolism, Nature Metabolism, Wildlife Research, Mucosal Immunology, Development, Developmental Biology, and others.

Because of our faculty’s tremendous support and the hard work of our students, we boast an acceptance rate to professional schools at twice the national average. Beyond professional schools, we have a tremendously high placement rate in both the workforce and graduate schools.

In addition to classes, fellowships, and faculty, our students have opportunities to join a variety of clubs including Beta Beta Beta National Biology Honor Society (By Select Invitation Only), MED Club, Pre-Dental Club, Pre-PA Club, HOSA, Women in STEM, Beyond the Basics, and others.

Career Opportunities

From Medical Schools to professional schools, to working in industry and research, here’s a snapshot of where our graduates have gone in recent years;

• Medical Schools and DO Schools from different Universities including Vanderbilt, UT Memphis, ETSU, UAB, Meharry, USC, Campbell University, Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Lincoln Memorial University, UCF, and others
• PhD programs in different fields of biology at different Universities including Vanderbilt, UAB, UC Davis, Cornell, Notre Dame, Emory, Meharry, Duke, UTK, MUSC, and others 
• MD/PhD Programs
• Dental School
• Pharmacy School
• Physician Assistant Programs
• Nurse Practitioner Programs
• Physical Therapy Schools
• Vet Schools
• Environmental and conservation scientists for state and federal government
• Wildlife biologists
• Foresters and Botanists for state and federal government
• Leaders in research at the forefront of clinical medicine at places like Sarah Cannon, Vandy, Icon, NASA, TN oncology, Techro, Aegis, and Harvard
• Biotechnology Industry
• Forensic Scientist
• Biology Teaching: From the secondary level through Universities and Medical Schools
• Technical and sales representatives for pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms
• Biomedical law

Environmental and Sustainability Science (ESS)

The Environmental and Sustainability Science (ESS) major has a 52-55 hours total, depending on the emphasis selected. ESS is broken down into a 40-hour core of required courses. Students select one of the two emphases: Social science, Communication, and Policy, (12 hours) and Biology (12-14 hours). Students completing the biology emphasis will have an earned biology minor. Students may earn an 18-hour minor in Sustainable Practice

By the very nature of our trans-disciplinary field, we expect students to include a diverse range of interests. The curriculum has been deliberately designed to give each student a strong core knowledge base as well as pursue a student’s area of interest in order to build a rigorous but personalized course of study.

One of the defining characteristics of the program is the requirement that all students perform and publicly present the results of their applied independent study at a program seminar or Lipscomb University’s Student Scholars Symposium in the spring. Independent research may take the form of hypothesis-driven ecologically-based scientific research, research question-driven projects using existing data, development of a solution to a specific problem in an applied field, or a business plan.

Program of Study Requirements

• Biology - Pharmacy 3+1 Program Major, B.A., B.S.
• Biology Education (General Science-Biology) Major, B.A., B.S.
• Biology Major, B.A., B.S.
• Biology Minor
• Bioscience and Philosophy, B.S.
• Environmental & Sustainability Science - Biology emphasis, B.S.
• Environmental & Sustainability Science - Social Science, Communication, and Policy emphasis, B.S.
• Molecular Biology - Biomolecular Science Graduate Bridge Program, Human Disease Track, B.S./M.S.
• Molecular Biology - Biomolecular Science Graduate Bridge Program, Laboratory Research Track, B.S./M.S.
• Molecular Biology Major, B.A., B.S.
• Neurobiology, B.S.
• Sustainable Practice Minor

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