Masters Degrees in Cell Biology, USA

The Department of Biology offers a Master of Science Degree that can be tailored to meet the needs of the student. Choices include a Thesis Option and a Non-thesis Option. The programs are designed to accommodate both full-time and part-time students.

Please visit the website to see the curriculum for these programs:

http://bio.wcupa.edu/biology/index.php/graduate-degrees.html

Our Mission

The primary mission of the Department of Biology is to provide a high quality educational experience to graduate students. This is achieved by maintaining small class sizes staffed by full-time faculty. Virtually all courses have a laboratory component, facilitating participatory learning. An integrated core curriculum is intended to strengthen the communication, quantitative and analytical skills of all biology majors. Several focused concentrations within the undergraduate curriculum offer options of either specialising for immediate employment upon graduation, or preparing for postgraduate education. 

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 well 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, adds exceptionally current information to lecture material, and has helped 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 beincorporated. A strong record of collaborative faculty-student research is one reason for the successful placement of most Biology Department graduates. 

The Biology Department serves the University by supporting coursework for 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 organisations, other schools and industry.

Research Opportunities

The faculty of the Department of Biology are nationally recognised for their research programs and publications in prestigious journals. Faculty research is regularly supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, or similar state and national organisations. Research and teaching facilities are equipped with such state-of-the-art equipment as liquid scintillation and gamma counters, spectrophotometers, and a digitised HPLC system. We also have access to a FEI environmental scanning electron microscope, a FEI transmission electron microscope, and Reichart ultramicrotome.

The Biology Department also manages a USDA certified (NIH approved) animal care facility, the 20,000 specimen William Darlington Herbarium, and 100 acre Robert B. Gordon Natural Area for Environmental Studies.

Research opportunities for graduate students are particularly strong in three areas:

(1) Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology;
(2) Physiology, Development, and Cell Biology; and
(3) Molecular Genetics, Immunology, and Microbiology.

Faculty in each of these programs have ongoing research projects and welcome serious student investigators into their laboratories.

Read less

Program Description

The Master of Science in Biology is designed to provide students with advanced knowledge of both plant and animal biology and microbiology. The program requires a minimum of 30 credits of graduate work. These must include at least one 3-credit course in four of the following five areas: cell biology/biochemistry, molecular biology, computational biology, ecology/evolution, and plant biology.

To fulfill the written thesis requirement, students may conduct laboratory, field work, or bibliographic research. Students selecting the experimentally-based research thesis option must complete a minimum of 24 credits of course work and 6 credits of research with a graduate faculty member of the department. Students choosing the bibliographic-based research thesis option are required to take 27 credits of course work and 3 credits of independent study with a graduate faculty member of the department. For both experimentally-based and bibliographic-based research thesis options, the thesis will be defended publicly followed by a question-and-answer session with the thesis committee. The thesis committee must be approved by the Graduate Program Director and consist of the primary advisor and at least one other reader who is a member of the graduate faculty.

Federal

Federation is a formal agreement between Rutgers University-Newark and NJIT to coordinate many activities. The goal is to increase the quality of teaching and research by drawing from the larger, combined resource base. In particular, the curriculum and requirements of the various Graduate options are the same for both institutions, and students may take courses on both campuses to fulfill those requirements. Federation also involves the sharing of office and laboratory facilities, the coordination of research, and long-term strategic planning.

Career Opportunities 

-Biologist 

-Botanist 

-Biomedical Engineer

-Entomologist 

-Evolutionary Biologist 

-Environmental Scientist

-Food Scientist 

-Herpetologist 

-Mammologist

-Ornithologist

-Pharmacist

-Zoologist 

-Geographer

-Forensic Scientist 

-Microbiologist 

-Hydrologist

-Biological Technician

-Attorney 

-Genetic Counselor 

-Physician Assistant

-Nurse Practitioner

Read less

A Message from Department Chair Lekan Latinwo, Ph.D

On behalf of Biology faculty, staff, and students, I am delighted to welcome you to the department of Biological Sciences at Florida A&M University, and to also provide you with a brief overview of our department through this electronic medium. The department offers Bachelors and Masters Degree programs and currently has an enrollment of 850 majors with low attrition rate. The undergraduate degree program consists of three tracks: 1) General Biology, 2) Pre-Medicine/Pre-Dentistry, and 3) Cellular and Molecular Biology. The M.S. degree is offered in the following three areas: 1) Cell and Molecular Biology, 2) Physiology, 3) Ecology and Plant Physiology.

We are fortunate in our department to have a dynamic group of faculty, staff and students whose strength reside in our abilities to appreciate old ideas, while eagerly willing to investigate and advance new ideas, and promote enduring knowledge. In addition, we are aiming at creating an academic environment in which both young and old students and scholars from all races and ethnic backgrounds can congregate for educational challenges and opportunities to perform their ultimate best. In our department, we strive to shape the agenda and totally refuse to let it shape us. We also engage in necessary dialogues to define and reinforce the goals and values of our department as it relates to the university mission of Excellence with Caring.

OUR MISSION

The Department of Biological Sciences' Mission parallels the mission of Florida A&M University’s, which is to provide an enlightened and enriched academic, intellectual, moral, cultural, ethical, technological and student-centered environment, conducive to the development of highly qualified individuals who are prepared and capable of serving as leaders and contributors in our ever-evolving society. The department is dedicated to providing contemporary quality undergraduate and graduate education in several areas of Biological Sciences including Pre-medical Biology to Science Education. The structure of our programs ensures that students are exposed to courses that will prepare them for careers in all areas of the field of biology. The laboratory experiences offered by the department require that students develop competencies in the use of modern biological techniques, and in the analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. Part of our mission is to create opportunities for our students to gain research experience. Many of our talented faculty members serve as mentors to our undergraduate students conducting research. Our students are well prepared to enter graduate or professional schools, such as medical, dental and pharmacy school, or to enter immediate employment after graduation. It is our goal to produce graduate students who conduct publishable research. We also prepare our graduate students to continue their education in doctoral or medical programs. The department serves non-majors as well, exposing this population of students to biological concepts which impact their lives. The Faculty and Staff of the Department of Biological Sciences strive to always provide Excellence with Caring.

The Department of Biological Sciences Encourages Students to:

* Expand their appreciation for biological diversity

* Form an understanding of Morphology and Physiology of Living systems

* Retain laboratory competency for future careers in the sciences

* Obtain research and presentation experience

* Acquire internship and volunteer experience

* Gain teaching and tutorial experience

* Prepare for Graduate school (M.S. or Ph.D.), Professional School, and Employment in the Sciences

Read less