BIOL

With approval of Advisory Committee.

Supervised projects and practica selected to meet the specific objectives of the student.

Reading and discussion course designed to explore a field of specific interest.

A structured specialty course for students at the senior level. Courses may include lecture and laboratory components. Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

This graduate seminar offers a dynamic exploration of the biological sciences through a rotating roster of faculty presenting diverse topics. Participants will engage in discussions of contemporary research papers, receive training in science communication and career development, and/or analyze seminal texts that have shaped the field.

A graduate seminar course in the ecological sciences. The format of the course depends on the faculty running the seminar, but most seminars involve student-led discussions on current research articles.

Course will explore the biology, diversity and major life history patterns of a suite of marine megafauna, including sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds and sharks. Students will determine the major drivers behind large-scale declines of many marine megafauna species and be challenged to understand and attempt to solve conservation and management issues. This is a writing intensive course, with a focus on the content and mechanics of scientific writing. Prerequisites: BIOL 291, BIOL 292, and ENGL 211C or ENGL 221C or ENGL 231C must be passed with a C (2.0) or better.

The application of computer science to biology has led to major breakthroughs in the ability to read and understand the code written in genomes. This course will give students the skills to participate in the computational revolution in biology. The course will give students hands-on experience in writing simple yet powerful computer programs in the Python programming language and making beautiful data visualizations in the R programming language. Students will also learn how to combine existing pieces of bioinformatics software for their own workflows.

Supervised projects and practica selected to meet the specific objectives of the student.

Both a refresher course and an introduction to commonly used modern statistical methods for graduate students in Biology. The focus is on application and hypothesis testing with examples drawn from the ?eld of biology. The course requires a substantial amount of homework and self-initiative outside the classroom. Prerequisites: course background in statistics.