History of Biological Sciences at OHIO

The current name of the Biological Sciences Department is of relatively recent vintage (circa 1998). Previous names have included, Zoology, Zoology and Microbiology, and Zoological and Biomedical Sciences.

The Biological Sciences graduate programs were approved in 1969. A major increase in the number of graduate faculty occurred after 1978 with the establishment of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine and the hiring of basic sciences faculty who were graduate faculty and tenured in Biological Sciences, with a total of about 45 graduate faculty by end of the 1980s. With the formation of the Biomedical Sciences Department in 1999, about 50 percent of the graduate faculty joined this new department, but remained members of the graduate faculty in Biological Sciences. This graduate program relationship continues today.

Programs initiated by the graduate faculty in Biological Sciences include the interdepartmental programs in Neuroscience (1989) and Molecular and Cellular Biology (1987), both established through the Ohio Board of Regents Academic Challenge Program, and Biological Sciences graduate faculty constitute the majority of faculty in these programs.

Centers and Institutes established by Biological Sciences faculty are the Quantitative Biology Program (2001) and the Ohio Center for Ecology & Evolutionary Studies (2006), both of which involve faculty from outside of the department.